Olin Co. (OLN) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.20 on March 14th

Olin Co. (NYSE:OLN) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 19th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be given a dividend of 0.20 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.35%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 6th.

Olin has a dividend payout ratio of 27.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Olin to earn $3.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 26.5%.

Olin Trading Down 5.9 %

OLN opened at $23.90 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.76 billion, a PE ratio of 26.56 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The business has a 50 day moving average of $30.47 and a 200-day moving average of $38.52. Olin has a 52 week low of $23.86 and a 52 week high of $60.60.

Olin (NYSE:OLN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.10. Olin had a return on equity of 5.10% and a net margin of 1.66%. Equities research analysts predict that Olin will post 1.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

OLN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Olin from $44.00 to $34.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Olin from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $50.00 to $28.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Bank of America raised Olin from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $48.00 to $40.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered Olin from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $45.00 to $30.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on Olin from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.38.

Olin declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, December 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the specialty chemicals company to reacquire up to 45% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Olin news, CEO Kenneth Todd Lane acquired 7,250 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $28.06 per share, for a total transaction of $203,435.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 7,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $203,435. The trade was a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.60% 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.