Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. Sells 888 Shares of LyondellBasell Industries (NYSE:LYB)

Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. lowered its position in LyondellBasell Industries (NYSE:LYB) by 28.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,243 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 888 shares during the quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC.’s holdings in LyondellBasell Industries were worth $225,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in LyondellBasell Industries by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,223,459 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,968,726,000 after purchasing an additional 290,401 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in LyondellBasell Industries by 9.9% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 6,305,596 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $597,140,000 after purchasing an additional 569,887 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in LyondellBasell Industries by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,683,892 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $540,424,000 after purchasing an additional 33,212 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in LyondellBasell Industries by 35.5% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,571,985 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $339,624,000 after buying an additional 935,430 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in LyondellBasell Industries by 1.6% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,528,799 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $239,478,000 after buying an additional 39,613 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on LYB shares. Mizuho upped their target price on LyondellBasell Industries from $98.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on LyondellBasell Industries from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on LyondellBasell Industries from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on LyondellBasell Industries from $105.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on LyondellBasell Industries from $96.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.08.

LyondellBasell Industries Price Performance

NYSE LYB opened at $95.66 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 2.12 and a quick ratio of 1.32. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $98.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $98.00. LyondellBasell Industries has a 1 year low of $87.91 and a 1 year high of $107.02. The company has a market cap of $31.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.79, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.13.

LyondellBasell Industries (NYSE:LYB) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.36 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $9.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.70 billion. LyondellBasell Industries had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 5.20%. The firm’s revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.50 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that LyondellBasell Industries will post 8.5 earnings per share for the current year.

LyondellBasell Industries Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were given a dividend of $1.34 per share. This is an increase from LyondellBasell Industries’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. This represents a $5.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.60%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 3rd. LyondellBasell Industries’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 82.84%.

LyondellBasell Industries Profile

LyondellBasell Industries N.V. operates as a chemical company in the United States, Germany, Mexico, Italy, Poland, France, Japan, China, the Netherlands, and internationally. The company operates in six segments: Olefins and PolyolefinsAmericas; Olefins and PolyolefinsEurope, Asia, International; Intermediates and Derivatives; Advanced Polymer Solutions; Refining; and Technology.