Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Huntsman (NYSE:HUN)

Huntsman Corporation (NYSE:HUN) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors acquired 16,208 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 83% compared to the average daily volume of 8,842 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on HUN. Alembic Global Advisors upgraded Huntsman from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and set a $15.00 price objective on shares of Huntsman in a research note on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen upgraded Huntsman from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Huntsman from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Huntsman from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $13.17.

Institutional Trading of Huntsman

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HUN. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Huntsman by 20.8% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 56,481 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $892,000 after purchasing an additional 9,720 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Huntsman by 97.0% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,137,285 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $33,748,000 after purchasing an additional 1,052,127 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in shares of Huntsman by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 599,296 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,463,000 after purchasing an additional 1,581 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth acquired a new position in shares of Huntsman during the 1st quarter valued at $680,000. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Huntsman by 34.5% during the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 14,250 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $148,000 after purchasing an additional 3,655 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.81% of the company’s stock.

Huntsman Stock Performance

NYSE:HUN traded up $0.60 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $13.92. 4,663,568 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,148,675. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.44 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.25 and a beta of 0.62. Huntsman has a 52 week low of $7.30 and a 52 week high of $15.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $13.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.64.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported ($0.20) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.23) by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.39 billion. Huntsman had a negative return on equity of 4.60% and a negative net margin of 5.83%.The business’s revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.11) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Huntsman will post -0.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Huntsman Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a $0.0875 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $0.35 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Huntsman’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -18.23%.

Huntsman Company Profile

Huntsman Corporation is a global manufacturer and marketer of specialty chemicals with headquarters in The Woodlands, Texas. Founded in 1970 by entrepreneur Jon Huntsman Sr., the company has grown through strategic acquisitions and organic expansion to establish a broad portfolio of products serving diverse end markets. Huntsman maintains a presence in more than 30 countries, operating manufacturing facilities across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East.

The company organizes its operations into several core business segments, including Polyurethanes, Performance Products, Advanced Materials, and Textile Effects.