Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Huntsman (NYSE:HUN)

Key Points

• On Thursday, Huntsman Corporation saw a significant increase in call options trading, with 8,402 options bought, representing a 119% increase compared to the usual volume.
• Institutional investors have made substantial moves, with Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increasing its stake by 898.5%, now holding 167,206 shares valued at $2.64 million.
• Analysts have lowered their price targets for Huntsman, with Mizuho cutting its target from $9.00 to $8.00 and assigning an "underperform" rating, reflecting a generally bearish outlook on the stock.

Huntsman Corporation (NYSE:HUN - Get Free Report) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors acquired 8,402 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 119% compared to the typical volume of 3,829 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Huntsman by 898.5% during the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 167,206 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,640,000 after acquiring an additional 150,461 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Huntsman by 12.6% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 132,516 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,096,000 after acquiring an additional 14,812 shares in the last quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Huntsman by 51.0% during the first quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 115,641 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,826,000 after acquiring an additional 39,035 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its stake in shares of Huntsman by 72.0% during the first quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 63,424 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,001,000 after acquiring an additional 26,551 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Huntsman by 1.3% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,064,044 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $95,751,000 after acquiring an additional 75,097 shares in the last quarter. 84.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Huntsman from $9.00 to $8.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Huntsman from $10.00 to $9.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (d)" rating on shares of Huntsman in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Huntsman from $13.00 to $9.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Huntsman from $12.00 to $10.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Reduce" and an average price target of $10.90.

Huntsman Price Performance

HUN traded up $0.50 on Thursday, reaching $8.66. The company had a trading volume of 2,893,587 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,092,539. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $10.97. The company has a market cap of $1.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.42 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.43. Huntsman has a 52-week low of $7.74 and a 52-week high of $23.03.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.15) by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $1.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.51 billion. Huntsman had a negative net margin of 5.75% and a negative return on equity of 2.48%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.14 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Huntsman will post 0.32 EPS for the current year.

Huntsman Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 11.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. Huntsman's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -51.28%.

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.

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