Investors Buy High Volume of Huntsman Put Options (NYSE:HUN)

Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN - Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders acquired 40,557 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 1,514% compared to the typical volume of 2,513 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in Huntsman by 1.6% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 13,441,732 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $367,766,000 after purchasing an additional 215,413 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Huntsman by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,214,010 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $256,681,000 after buying an additional 210,754 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in Huntsman by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,379,307 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $204,455,000 after acquiring an additional 183,734 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in Huntsman by 1.4% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 6,560,737 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $170,776,000 after acquiring an additional 88,635 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp boosted its stake in Huntsman by 0.5% in the second quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 5,719,453 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $154,540,000 after acquiring an additional 28,931 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.81% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Huntsman Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of HUN stock traded up $0.01 during trading on Friday, reaching $23.73. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,582,970 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,972,593. Huntsman has a 1-year low of $22.14 and a 1-year high of $29.90. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $25.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $24.62. The company has a market capitalization of $4.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.76 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.23.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $1.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.33 billion. Huntsman had a return on equity of 1.92% and a net margin of 1.65%. The business's revenue was down 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.04 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Huntsman will post 0.47 EPS for the current year.

Huntsman Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.21%. This is a positive change from Huntsman's previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Huntsman's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.