Raymond James & Associates Reduces Stock Holdings in Olin Co. (NYSE:OLN)

Raymond James & Associates trimmed its holdings in shares of Olin Co. (NYSE:OLN - Free Report) by 48.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 152,513 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after selling 141,653 shares during the quarter. Raymond James & Associates owned about 0.12% of Olin worth $8,228,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Olin by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,867,281 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $829,542,000 after buying an additional 493,052 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Olin by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,581,714 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $291,812,000 after buying an additional 31,587 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Olin by 15.6% in the 3rd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 2,940,658 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $146,974,000 after buying an additional 397,050 shares during the period. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC increased its holdings in Olin by 17.4% in the 3rd quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 1,410,252 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $60,471,000 after buying an additional 209,466 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in Olin by 120.8% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,390,662 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $72,704,000 after buying an additional 760,691 shares during the period. 88.67% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Olin from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Olin from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Olin from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Olin from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Olin from $58.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Olin presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $57.07.

Olin Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE OLN traded down $0.17 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $58.66. The stock had a trading volume of 615,378 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,058,948. The firm has a market cap of $7.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.32 and a beta of 1.44. Olin Co. has a twelve month low of $41.71 and a twelve month high of $60.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.29. The company's 50 day moving average price is $54.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $50.95.

Olin (NYSE:OLN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.50 billion. Olin had a net margin of 6.74% and a return on equity of 18.44%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Olin Co. will post 3.75 EPS for the current year.

Olin Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 7th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 6th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.36%. Olin's dividend payout ratio is currently 22.60%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Scott Mcdougald Sutton sold 539,328 shares of Olin stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.96, for a total value of $29,102,138.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 47,620 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,569,575.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Olin news, CEO Scott Mcdougald Sutton sold 539,328 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.96, for a total transaction of $29,102,138.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 47,620 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,569,575.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Brett A. Flaugher sold 15,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.46, for a total transaction of $786,900.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 8,782 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $460,703.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 753,274 shares of company stock worth $40,434,124 in the last quarter. 1.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Olin Profile

Olin Corporation manufactures and distributes chemical products in the United States, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Canada. It operates through three segments: Chlor Alkali Products and Vinyls; Epoxy; and Winchester. The Chlor Alkali Products and Vinyls segment offers chlorine and caustic soda, ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride monomers, methyl chloride, methylene chloride, chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, perchloroethylene, hydrochloric acid, hydrogen, bleach products, potassium hydroxide, and chlorinated organics intermediates and solvents.