Vanguard Group Inc. Increases Position in Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN)

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 16,482,011 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 130,702 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.10% of Huntsman worth $297,171,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its position in Huntsman by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 38,070 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $686,000 after buying an additional 674 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Huntsman by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 31,694 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $571,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212 shares in the last quarter. EMC Capital Management raised its position in shares of Huntsman by 21.5% in the 4th quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 10,288 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $185,000 after purchasing an additional 1,821 shares during the last quarter. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in Huntsman in the 4th quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC grew its position in Huntsman by 174.5% during the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 4,386 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 2,788 shares during the last quarter. 84.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HUN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Alembic Global Advisors downgraded shares of Huntsman from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Huntsman from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Huntsman from $24.00 to $20.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Huntsman from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Huntsman from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $19.63.

Huntsman Stock Performance

Shares of HUN opened at $13.38 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.32 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.16 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Huntsman Co. has a one year low of $12.46 and a one year high of $25.98. The business has a fifty day moving average of $16.76 and a 200 day moving average of $19.11.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 17th. The basic materials company reported ($0.25) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.07) by ($0.18). The firm had revenue of $1.45 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.45 billion. Huntsman had a negative net margin of 3.13% and a negative return on equity of 0.39%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Huntsman Co. will post 0.32 EPS for the current year.

Huntsman Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.48%. Huntsman’s payout ratio is presently -90.91%.

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.