Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $22.63.

HUN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Huntsman from $24.00 to $20.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup decreased their price target on Huntsman from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Huntsman from $24.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Huntsman from $26.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Huntsman from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Huntsman

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Inceptionr LLC acquired a new stake in Huntsman in the 4th quarter valued at $754,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Huntsman in the fourth quarter valued at $5,475,000. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Huntsman during the fourth quarter valued at about $245,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Huntsman during the fourth quarter worth about $387,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Huntsman by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,686,557 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $102,529,000 after acquiring an additional 349,502 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.81% of the company’s stock.

Huntsman Price Performance

Shares of HUN opened at $17.22 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $20.55. Huntsman has a 12-month low of $15.67 and a 12-month high of $27.01. The stock has a market cap of $2.98 billion, a PE ratio of -24.95 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.55 billion. Huntsman had a negative net margin of 1.99% and a negative return on equity of 0.03%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.15 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Huntsman will post 0.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.