Heartland Advisors Inc. Decreases Stake in Sensient Technologies Corporation $SXT

Heartland Advisors Inc. cut its holdings in Sensient Technologies Corporation (NYSE:SXT) by 7.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 72,854 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 5,738 shares during the quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Sensient Technologies were worth $6,845,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Salomon & Ludwin LLC boosted its stake in shares of Sensient Technologies by 146.2% in the fourth quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 293 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Sensient Technologies by 313.5% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 306 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 232 shares during the last quarter. State of Wyoming acquired a new position in Sensient Technologies during the third quarter worth $32,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Sensient Technologies during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Sensient Technologies by 181.1% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 475 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 306 shares during the last quarter. 90.86% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Sensient Technologies

In other news, VP Thierry Hoang sold 439 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.15, for a total value of $50,111.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 14,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,633,372.35. The trade was a 2.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on SXT shares. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Sensient Technologies from $115.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Zacks Research raised Sensient Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Sensient Technologies from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $134.00.

Sensient Technologies Stock Performance

Shares of SXT stock opened at $119.69 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $108.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $99.18. The stock has a market cap of $5.10 billion, a PE ratio of 35.31 and a beta of 0.80. Sensient Technologies Corporation has a 1 year low of $82.60 and a 1 year high of $129.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a current ratio of 5.01.

Sensient Technologies (NYSE:SXT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 24th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.24. Sensient Technologies had a return on equity of 13.12% and a net margin of 8.71%.The company had revenue of $435.83 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $411.39 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.86 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sensient Technologies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.700-3.90 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Sensient Technologies Corporation will post 3.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sensient Technologies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 11th were issued a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 11th. Sensient Technologies’s payout ratio is 48.38%.

Sensient Technologies Company Profile

Sensient Technologies Corporation is a global leader in the manufacture and supply of colors, flavors and fragrances for a broad range of end-markets. The company develops and produces ingredients that enhance the appearance, taste and scent of products in the food, beverage, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, personal care and household sectors. Its portfolio includes natural and synthetic colorants, botanical and artificial flavor systems, fragrance compounds and specialty chemical offerings tailored to customer specifications.

Within its flavor and fragrance division, Sensient provides custom formulations for sweet, savory and umami taste profiles along with fragrance blends for personal care and cosmetic applications.