Moody National Bank Trust Division Sells 14,504 Shares of Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

Moody National Bank Trust Division lessened its stake in shares of Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) by 39.1% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 22,623 shares of the company’s stock after selling 14,504 shares during the period. Moody National Bank Trust Division’s holdings in Element Solutions were worth $1,080,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ESI. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Element Solutions by 13.2% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,119,999 shares of the company’s stock worth $277,889,000 after acquiring an additional 1,298,273 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,485,342 shares of the company’s stock valued at $212,053,000 after purchasing an additional 228,416 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,161,586 shares of the company’s stock valued at $178,968,000 after purchasing an additional 83,033 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 43.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,069,238 shares of the company’s stock worth $176,660,000 after purchasing an additional 2,146,512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FIL Ltd increased its position in shares of Element Solutions by 13.9% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 5,089,359 shares of the company’s stock worth $127,183,000 after purchasing an additional 621,448 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ESI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Seaport Research Partners restated a “buy” rating and issued a $49.00 price target on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Element Solutions in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Mizuho reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $45.00 target price (down from $54.00) on shares of Element Solutions in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Wolfe Research set a $47.00 target price on Element Solutions in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Element Solutions from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $43.50.

Element Solutions Stock Down 1.6%

Shares of NYSE ESI opened at $38.27 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.46. The company has a market cap of $9.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 2.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. Element Solutions Inc. has a 12-month low of $22.86 and a 12-month high of $49.25.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.04. Element Solutions had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 14.88%. The company had revenue of $977.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $873.19 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.20 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 56.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 1st were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 1st. Element Solutions’s payout ratio is 43.24%.

About Element Solutions

Element Solutions Inc is a global specialty chemicals company that develops and supplies highly engineered chemistries to performance-driven end markets. The company’s solutions serve customers across the electronics, energy, transportation, consumer and industrial sectors, with a particular emphasis on electronics chemicals, metal plating, and industrial coatings additives.

In the electronics market, Element Solutions provides a range of plating and surface-treatment chemistries used in the manufacture of printed circuit boards, semiconductor devices, and advanced display technologies.