Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) Short Interest Down 5.8% in September

Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,890,000 shares, a decline of 5.8% from the August 31st total of 4,130,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,970,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.0 days. Currently, 2.4% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Huntsman by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 6,657,819 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $151,599,000 after buying an additional 97,082 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in Huntsman by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 4,891,928 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $111,389,000 after purchasing an additional 243,821 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Huntsman by 54.0% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 4,415,264 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $100,536,000 after buying an additional 1,547,344 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Huntsman by 75.9% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,151,535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $79,198,000 after acquiring an additional 1,359,437 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Huntsman by 9.2% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,408,592 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $62,697,000 after acquiring an additional 203,396 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.81% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on HUN shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Huntsman from $28.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Huntsman from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Huntsman from $30.00 to $21.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Huntsman from $27.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Huntsman from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $25.56.

Huntsman Price Performance

NYSE:HUN traded down $0.30 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $24.25. 174,111 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,924,446. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $22.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $23.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. The company has a market capitalization of $4.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -47.21 and a beta of 1.00. Huntsman has a one year low of $19.91 and a one year high of $27.01.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.14. The business had revenue of $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.61 billion. Huntsman had a positive return on equity of 0.26% and a negative net margin of 1.44%. The company’s revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.22 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Huntsman will post 0.2 EPS for the current year.

Huntsman Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. Huntsman’s dividend payout ratio is presently -192.31%.

Huntsman Company 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.