Brokerages Set Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) PT at $30.75

Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $30.75.

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. UBS Group lifted their price target on Element Solutions from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets lowered Element Solutions from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. KeyCorp upped their price target on Element Solutions from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Element Solutions from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, CJS Securities raised shares of Element Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th.

Insider Transactions at Element Solutions

In related news, insider Matthew Liebowitz sold 37,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.60, for a total transaction of $984,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 117,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,122,653.80. This represents a 23.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Ian G. H. Ashken sold 292,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.00, for a total value of $7,884,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 306,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,285,760. This represents a 48.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 6.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Element Solutions

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ESI. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Element Solutions by 12.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,932,851 shares of the company’s stock worth $563,732,000 after buying an additional 2,688,056 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,256,926 shares of the company’s stock worth $207,822,000 after purchasing an additional 139,751 shares during the last quarter. Gates Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 101.9% during the 1st quarter. Gates Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,424,745 shares of the company’s stock worth $122,653,000 after purchasing an additional 2,738,250 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 68.6% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,922,726 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,905,000 after purchasing an additional 2,003,724 shares during the period. Finally, Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Element Solutions by 9.6% in the 3rd quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC now owns 4,722,464 shares of the company’s stock valued at $118,864,000 after purchasing an additional 413,834 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Element Solutions Stock Performance

Shares of ESI stock opened at $25.39 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 3.28 and a current ratio of 4.05. The company has a market capitalization of $6.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.33. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $26.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $24.91. Element Solutions has a 52 week low of $16.77 and a 52 week high of $27.97.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.02. Element Solutions had a net margin of 9.58% and a return on equity of 14.01%. The company had revenue of $656.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $645.13 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.39 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Element Solutions will post 1.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 1st were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 1st. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. Element Solutions’s payout ratio is 32.32%.

About Element Solutions

Element Solutions Inc operates as a specialty chemicals company in the United States, China, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Electronics, and Industrial & Specialty. The Electronics segment researches, formulates, and sells specialty chemicals and materials for various types of electronics hardware products.