Boston, MA 08/06/2014 (wallstreetpr) – At least two brokerages have upgraded the shares of the France-based chemical products manufacturer Arkema S.A. (ADR) (OTCMKTS:ARKAY) on Tuesday. However, they have not effected any changes in price objective of the stock. As a result, the stock witnessed 3.2% uptick during the regular trading session on Tuesday.
Rating Changed
Investment advisor Bank of America had upgraded the shares of Arkema S.A. (ADR) (OTCMKTS:ARKAY) to a rating of Buy from Hold through a research report on Tuesday to its clients. However, the brokerage had not made any changes in its price target.
Similarly, Nomura had lifted its rating of the stock to Buy from Hold on Tuesday. Its analyst also chose not to effect any changes in the price tag of the chemical products manufacturer stock.
However, another brokerage HSBC preferred to downgrade the shares of the company to a rating of Neutral from Buy on Monday. While these rating changes happened after Arkema announced its quarterly financial results on August 1, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) had downgraded the stock to Underweight from Overweight over three weeks before the results announcement.
2Q Results
Arkema S.A. (ADR) (OTCMKTS:ARKAY) announced a 58% drop in net income to Euros 47 million from Euros 112 million in the year-ago quarter. Similarly, its adjusted net income too witnessed a downtick of 45.2% to Euros 68 million or Euros 1.07 a share from Euros 124 million or Euros $1.98 a share in the same quarter last year.
Its sales fell 6.7% to Euros 1.52 billion from Euros 1.63 billion in the previous year quarter. EBITDA margin dipped to 13.6% from 16.8% in the prior year quarter.
Technical Barometers
Though the stock advanced 3.2% on Tuesday, it was only 4.4% higher than the yearly low price of $67.5. Also, the shares of Arkema S.A. (ADR) (OTCMKTS:ARKAY) are trading at a discount 25.4% and 32.3% respectively compared to the 50-day, as well as, 200-day moving average price of $94.39 and $104.04 respectively. The 52-week high of $116.94 too suggests that the stock is trading at nearly 40% discount.
