International Assets Investment Management LLC Invests $295,000 in Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN)

International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 11,736 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $295,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 904,696 shares during the period. Dark Forest Capital Management LP lifted its stake in shares of Huntsman by 115.4% in the 3rd quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 105,627 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,577,000 after purchasing an additional 56,598 shares during the period. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC boosted its position in shares of Huntsman by 6.4% during the third quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 73,275 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,788,000 after purchasing an additional 4,406 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new stake in Huntsman in the third quarter worth $2,889,000. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd bought a new position in Huntsman in the third quarter worth $4,268,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.81% of the company’s stock.

Huntsman Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE HUN opened at $24.00 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $25.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $24.63. Huntsman Co. has a 52-week low of $22.14 and a 52-week high of $29.90. The company has a market cap of $4.15 billion, a PE ratio of 45.28 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported ($0.21) earnings per share (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 analysts’ expectations of $1.33 billion. Huntsman had a return on equity of 1.92% and a net margin of 1.65%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.04 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Huntsman Co. will post 0.43 EPS for the current year.

Huntsman Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HUN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Huntsman from $30.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Huntsman from $20.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of 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 upped their price target for the stock from $25.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Huntsman has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.55.

Huntsman Company Profile

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.