Olin (NYSE:OLN) Downgraded by Bank of America to “Neutral”

Olin (NYSE:OLN) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report issued on Monday, Briefing.com reports. They currently have a $51.00 price target on the specialty chemicals company’s stock, down from their prior price target of $62.00. Bank of America‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 14.22% from the stock’s previous close.

OLN has been the topic of several other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Olin from $68.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Olin from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Olin from $55.00 to $49.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Olin from $61.00 to $52.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on Olin from $59.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.14.

Olin Price Performance

Olin stock traded up $0.06 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $44.65. 2,150,124 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,082,844. Olin has a 12 month low of $41.71 and a 12 month high of $60.60. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $49.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $52.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market cap of $5.33 billion, a PE ratio of 15.95, a PEG ratio of 0.32 and a beta of 1.44.

Olin (NYSE:OLN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.70 by ($0.08). Olin had a net margin of 4.26% and a return on equity of 11.73%. The business had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.13 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Olin will post 3.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Boston Partners increased its stake in Olin by 122.8% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,029,377 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $271,152,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772,274 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Olin in the fourth quarter worth about $76,125,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in Olin by 218.6% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,649,273 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $88,978,000 after buying an additional 1,131,674 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Olin by 67.6% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 663,202 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $35,780,000 after purchasing an additional 267,460 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia bought a new stake in shares of Olin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $12,628,000. Institutional investors own 88.67% of the company’s stock.

About Olin

Olin Corporation manufactures and distributes chemical products in the United States, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Canada. It operates through three segments: Chlor Alkali Products and Vinyls; Epoxy; and Winchester. The Chlor Alkali Products and Vinyls segment offers chlorine and caustic soda, ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride monomers, methyl chloride, methylene chloride, chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, perchloroethylene, hydrochloric acid, hydrogen, bleach products, potassium hydroxide, and chlorinated organics intermediates and solvents.