Lazard Asset Management LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

Lazard Asset Management LLC trimmed its stake in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) by 70.9% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 18,545 shares of the company’s stock after selling 45,277 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Element Solutions were worth $633,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its position 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 valued at $277,889,000 after purchasing an additional 1,298,273 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings 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 worth $212,053,000 after buying an additional 228,416 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Element Solutions by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,161,586 shares of the company’s stock valued at $178,968,000 after buying an additional 83,033 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 43.6% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,069,238 shares of the company’s stock worth $176,660,000 after acquiring an additional 2,146,512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FIL Ltd lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 621,448 shares during the last quarter. 92.32% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on ESI shares. UBS Group increased their target price on Element Solutions to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Mizuho reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $45.00 price target (down from $54.00) on shares of Element Solutions in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Seaport Research Partners reissued a “buy” rating and set a $49.00 price objective on shares of Element Solutions in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Element Solutions in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Element Solutions has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $43.50.

Element Solutions Price Performance

ESI stock opened at $38.48 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 2.91. Element Solutions Inc. has a 52 week low of $22.86 and a 52 week high of $49.25. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $41.34 and its 200 day moving average is $37.52. The firm has a market cap of $9.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.26.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.04. Element Solutions had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 14.88%. The business 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 56.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Element Solutions Dividend Announcement

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