Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) Shares Sold by Clearbridge Investments LLC

Clearbridge Investments LLC cut its stake in Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) by 37.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 372,860 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 220,021 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC’s holdings in Huntsman were worth $9,370,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HUN. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its position in Huntsman by 93.0% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,081 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 521 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Huntsman by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 12,768 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $321,000 after buying an additional 1,140 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in Huntsman during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Synovus Financial Corp raised its position in Huntsman by 11.9% in the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 16,542 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $404,000 after purchasing an additional 1,760 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Montag A & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Huntsman in the fourth quarter valued at about $45,000. Institutional investors own 84.81% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HUN has been the topic of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Huntsman from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Huntsman from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Huntsman from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $25.00 to $32.00 in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.73.

Huntsman Price Performance

Shares of HUN stock traded down $0.06 on Friday, hitting $25.00. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,229,284 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,802,069. Huntsman Co. has a fifty-two week low of $22.14 and a fifty-two week high of $29.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $24.90 and its 200-day moving average is $24.84.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported ($0.06) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.06). Huntsman had a positive return on equity of 0.67% and a negative net margin of 1.49%. The business had revenue of $1.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.47 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.20 earnings per share. Huntsman’s revenue was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Huntsman Co. will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Huntsman Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. Huntsman’s dividend payout ratio is currently -192.31%.

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.