Pzena Investment Management LLC Purchases 256,903 Shares of Olin Co. (NYSE:OLN)

Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its position in Olin Co. (NYSE:OLN - Free Report) by 7.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,709,611 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after purchasing an additional 256,903 shares during the quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC owned approximately 3.18% of Olin worth $125,385,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in Olin by 34.3% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,887 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $98,000 after acquiring an additional 738 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in Olin by 55.5% during the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 143,062 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $4,835,000 after acquiring an additional 51,051 shares during the period. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC bought a new position in Olin during the third quarter worth $916,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Olin by 2.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,295,699 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $62,168,000 after acquiring an additional 37,043 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its position in Olin by 82.9% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 5,461 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $185,000 after acquiring an additional 2,476 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.67% of the company's stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on OLN. KeyCorp dropped their target price on shares of Olin from $50.00 to $40.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Olin from $38.00 to $32.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Olin from $44.00 to $34.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of Olin from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Olin from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $50.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $38.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kenneth Todd Lane purchased 7,250 shares of Olin stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $28.06 per share, for a total transaction of $203,435.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 7,250 shares in the company, valued at approximately $203,435. This represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Olin Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:OLN traded up $0.86 on Friday, hitting $24.66. The stock had a trading volume of 1,529,550 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,389,762. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $28.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.53. The company has a market capitalization of $2.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.40 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 1.27. Olin Co. has a twelve month low of $22.98 and a twelve month high of $60.60.

Olin (NYSE:OLN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.10. Olin had a net margin of 1.66% and a return on equity of 5.10%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Olin Co. will post 1.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Olin Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 6th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.24%. Olin's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 88.89%.

Olin announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, December 12th that permits the company to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the specialty chemicals company to repurchase up to 45% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.