National Pension Service Reduces Stock Holdings in LyondellBasell Industries (NYSE:LYB)

National Pension Service reduced its stake in LyondellBasell Industries (NYSE:LYB) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 435,263 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 10,911 shares during the period. National Pension Service owned 0.13% of LyondellBasell Industries worth $32,327,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Denali Advisors LLC increased its stake in LyondellBasell Industries by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 10,549 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $783,000 after purchasing an additional 907 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its holdings in shares of LyondellBasell Industries by 31.8% in the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 3,649 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $271,000 after acquiring an additional 881 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council boosted its holdings in shares of LyondellBasell Industries by 19.6% in the fourth quarter. South Dakota Investment Council now owns 228,876 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $16,999,000 after acquiring an additional 37,583 shares during the period. Forvis Mazars Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of LyondellBasell Industries by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Forvis Mazars Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,814 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $283,000 after acquiring an additional 253 shares during the period. Finally, Howard Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of LyondellBasell Industries by 33.1% in the fourth quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,153 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $234,000 after acquiring an additional 784 shares during the period. 71.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Robin W.T. Buchanan purchased 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $76.06 per share, for a total transaction of $380,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,175 shares in the company, valued at $1,382,390.50. This represents a 37.95 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.11% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on LyondellBasell Industries from $100.00 to $94.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 4th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on LyondellBasell Industries from $97.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com downgraded LyondellBasell Industries from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on LyondellBasell Industries from $96.00 to $86.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on LyondellBasell Industries from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, LyondellBasell Industries presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $88.25.

LyondellBasell Industries Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE:LYB opened at $76.77 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $75.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $84.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.54, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.83. LyondellBasell Industries has a 1 year low of $72.21 and a 1 year high of $107.02.

LyondellBasell Industries (NYSE:LYB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.28 by ($0.53). LyondellBasell Industries had a return on equity of 15.97% and a net margin of 3.39%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.26 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that LyondellBasell Industries will post 6.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

LyondellBasell Industries Company Profile

LyondellBasell Industries N.V. operates as a chemical company in the United States, Germany, Mexico, Italy, Poland, France, Japan, China, the Netherlands, and internationally. The company operates in six segments: Olefins and PolyolefinsAmericas; Olefins and PolyolefinsEurope, Asia, International; Intermediates and Derivatives; Advanced Polymer Solutions; Refining; and Technology.