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

Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) saw unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock investors purchased 9,633 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 254% compared to the average volume of 2,724 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HUN. Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted 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 worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 521 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new stake in Huntsman in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Montag A & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Huntsman during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Huntsman during the 1st quarter worth approximately $45,000. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Huntsman in the 4th quarter worth approximately $52,000. 84.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HUN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Huntsman from $30.00 to $21.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Huntsman from $28.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Huntsman from $27.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup dropped their target price on Huntsman from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Huntsman from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Huntsman currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $25.56.

Huntsman Stock Performance

NYSE:HUN opened at $21.97 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.55. Huntsman has a fifty-two week low of $19.91 and a fifty-two week high of $28.36. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $22.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $23.94. The firm has a market cap of $3.80 billion, a PE ratio of -42.25 and a beta of 1.01.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.14. The firm had revenue of $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.61 billion. Huntsman had a negative net margin of 1.49% and a positive return on equity of 0.67%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.22 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Huntsman will post 0.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Huntsman Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. Huntsman’s payout ratio is -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.