Wedbush Securities Inc. Invests $448,000 in Huntsman Corporation $HUN

Wedbush Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Huntsman Corporation (NYSE:HUN) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 42,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $448,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Huntsman by 345.7% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 9,926,971 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $151,982,000 after buying an additional 7,699,922 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in 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 worth $33,748,000 after acquiring an additional 1,052,127 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Huntsman in the first quarter valued at $13,181,000. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC boosted its stake in Huntsman by 1,642.1% in the first quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 749,158 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $11,829,000 after acquiring an additional 706,155 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC boosted its stake in Huntsman by 732.1% in the first quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 659,310 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,410,000 after acquiring an additional 580,080 shares in the last quarter. 84.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on HUN shares. Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating and set a $8.00 target price (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Huntsman in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Huntsman from $9.00 to $8.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Huntsman from $15.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Huntsman from $9.00 to $8.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Huntsman from $13.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $10.00.

Huntsman Stock Up 3.3%

Shares of Huntsman stock opened at $8.57 on Wednesday. Huntsman Corporation has a one year low of $7.30 and a one year high of $20.94. The company has a market cap of $1.49 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.39 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.43. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $9.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $10.45.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The basic materials company reported ($0.03) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.13) by $0.10. Huntsman had a negative net margin of 5.75% and a negative return on equity of 2.48%. The business had revenue of $1.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.10 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Huntsman Corporation will post 0.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Huntsman Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be issued a $0.0875 dividend. This represents a $0.35 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. Huntsman’s payout ratio is currently -18.42%.

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.