Man Group plc Buys 64,476 Shares of Olin Co. (NYSE:OLN)

Man Group plc grew its stake in shares of Olin Co. (NYSE:OLN) by 16.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 456,307 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 64,476 shares during the quarter. Man Group plc’s holdings in Olin were worth $15,423,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of Olin by 37.7% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 125,913 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $6,042,000 after purchasing an additional 34,485 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Olin in the fourth quarter worth about $4,264,000. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its stake in shares of Olin by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 59,134 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,999,000 after purchasing an additional 8,521 shares during the last quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. grew its stake in shares of Olin by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 6,930 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $234,000 after purchasing an additional 542 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of Olin by 34.3% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,887 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $98,000 after purchasing an additional 738 shares during the last quarter. 88.67% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Olin Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE:OLN opened at $21.12 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. Olin Co. has a 12 month low of $17.66 and a 12 month high of $56.98. The company has a market cap of $2.43 billion, a PE ratio of 23.47 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $22.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $30.01.

Olin (NYSE:OLN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by $0.14. Olin had a net margin of 1.66% and a return on equity of 5.10%. The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.40 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Olin Co. will post 1.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Olin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Olin’s payout ratio is 156.86%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on OLN shares. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Olin from $44.00 to $34.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Olin from $28.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Olin from $28.00 to $25.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 5th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Olin from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Olin from $34.00 to $28.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $28.07.

About Olin

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.