Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) Shares Bought by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) by 31.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 61,433 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,574 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Huntsman were worth $1,544,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Huntsman by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,379,307 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $204,455,000 after purchasing an additional 183,734 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Huntsman by 2.4% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 6,463,817 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $157,717,000 after buying an additional 152,667 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Huntsman by 14.6% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,372,034 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $106,678,000 after buying an additional 556,629 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Huntsman by 101.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,792,098 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $43,727,000 after acquiring an additional 904,696 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Huntsman by 3.3% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,770,005 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $43,188,000 after acquiring an additional 55,828 shares during the period. 84.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on HUN shares. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Huntsman from $30.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Huntsman from $20.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Huntsman from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Huntsman from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $25.00 to $32.00 in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $26.55.

Huntsman Price Performance

Shares of HUN opened at $23.99 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.15 billion, a PE ratio of 45.27 and a beta of 1.12. Huntsman Co. has a 52-week low of $22.14 and a 52-week high of $29.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.97. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $25.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $24.64.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported ($0.21) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $1.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.33 billion. Huntsman had a net margin of 1.65% and a return on equity of 1.92%. The company’s revenue was down 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.04 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Huntsman Co. will post 0.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Huntsman Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This is a boost from Huntsman’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Huntsman’s dividend payout ratio is currently 188.68%.

About Huntsman

Huntsman Corporation manufactures and sells diversified organic chemical products worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Polyurethanes, Performance Products, and Advanced Materials. The Polyurethanes segment offers polyurethane chemicals, including methyl diphenyl diisocyanate, polyether and polyester polyols, and thermoplastic polyurethane; and aniline, benzene, nitrobenzene and other co-products.