Basf (OTCMKTS:BASFY) Stock Rating Upgraded by Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Basf (OTCMKTS:BASFY - Free Report) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a report published on Thursday morning, Marketbeat reports.

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Basf from a "neutral" rating to an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold".

Basf Stock Performance

OTCMKTS BASFY traded down $0.50 on Thursday, reaching $12.96. The stock had a trading volume of 49,072 shares, compared to its average volume of 200,233. Basf has a 1-year low of $10.57 and a 1-year high of $14.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.83 and a quick ratio of 1.07. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $12.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $12.43. The company has a market cap of $46.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.38 and a beta of 1.06.

Basf (OTCMKTS:BASFY - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $18.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. Basf had a return on equity of 8.20% and a net margin of 1.13%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Basf will post 0.83 EPS for the current year.

Basf Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 19th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 7th were given a dividend of $0.4322 per share. This represents a yield of 3.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 6th. Basf's payout ratio is 191.30%.

Basf Company Profile

BASF SE operates as a chemical company worldwide. It operates through six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care, and Agricultural Solutions. The Chemicals segment provides petrochemicals and intermediates. The Materials segment offers advanced materials and their precursors for applications and systems comprising isocyanates, polyamides, and inorganic basic products, as well as specialties for plastics and plastics processing industries.