Seven Eight Capital LP Acquires 9,708 Shares of Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN)

Seven Eight Capital LP lifted its position in Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) by 69.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,773 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 9,708 shares during the period. Seven Eight Capital LP’s holdings in Huntsman were worth $619,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in HUN. Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its position in shares of Huntsman by 93.0% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,081 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 521 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in shares of Huntsman in the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. Montag A & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Huntsman in the 4th quarter valued at $45,000. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Huntsman in the 1st quarter valued at $45,000. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of Huntsman in the 4th quarter valued at $52,000. Institutional investors own 84.81% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on HUN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Huntsman from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $27.00 in a report on Friday, June 7th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Huntsman from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Huntsman from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 27th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Huntsman from $26.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Huntsman from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.50.

Huntsman Stock Performance

Huntsman stock traded down $0.52 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $22.99. The company had a trading volume of 1,571,784 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,912,790. The firm has a market cap of $3.98 billion, a PE ratio of -44.21 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.55 and a quick ratio of 0.98. Huntsman Co. has a one year low of $21.41 and a one year high of $29.90. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $23.59 and a 200 day moving average of $24.35.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 negative net margin of 1.49% and a positive return on equity of 0.67%. The firm had revenue of $1.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.47 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.20 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Huntsman Co. will post 0.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Huntsman Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.35%. Huntsman’s dividend payout ratio is presently -192.31%.

Huntsman Profile

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.