Investors Buy High Volume of Huntsman Put Options (NYSE:HUN)

Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) saw some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock investors purchased 8,556 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 585% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,249 put options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Huntsman from $29.00 to $25.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 28th. Bank of America raised Huntsman from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 18th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Huntsman from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 3rd. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Huntsman from $30.00 to $26.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 21st. Finally, TheStreet lowered Huntsman from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Monday, September 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Huntsman has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.27.

Huntsman Stock Performance

Shares of Huntsman stock opened at $24.91 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $4.34 billion, a PE ratio of 54.14 and a beta of 1.13. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $24.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $25.81. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. Huntsman has a 12 month low of $22.14 and a 12 month high of $33.46.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.56 billion. Huntsman had a return on equity of 2.90% and a net margin of 1.27%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 25.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.71 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Huntsman will post 0.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Huntsman Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 29th. Investors of record on Friday, December 15th will be given a dividend of $0.2375 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 14th. This represents a $0.95 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.81%. Huntsman’s payout ratio is 206.52%.

Institutional Trading of Huntsman

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rothschild Investment Corp IL raised its holdings in Huntsman by 4.8% during the second quarter. Rothschild Investment Corp IL now owns 8,700 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $235,000 after buying an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC raised its holdings in Huntsman by 84.3% during the first quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 412 shares in the last quarter. Pathstone Family Office LLC raised its holdings in Huntsman by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Pathstone Family Office LLC now owns 12,569 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $156,000 after buying an additional 418 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its holdings in Huntsman by 1.1% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 41,382 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,173,000 after buying an additional 444 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. raised its holdings in Huntsman by 0.4% during the first quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 104,371 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,856,000 after buying an additional 446 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.44% of the company’s stock.

About Huntsman

Huntsman Corporation manufactures and sells diversified organic chemical products worldwide. The company operates through 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.