Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume After Analyst Upgrade

Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) shares saw strong trading volume on Monday after BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on the stock from $45.00 to $50.00. BMO Capital Markets currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Approximately 3,025,600 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 1% from the previous session’s volume of 3,010,042 shares.The stock last traded at $42.6720 and had previously closed at $43.64.

ESI has been the topic of several other reports. Seaport Research Partners reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $49.00 price target on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Wall Street Zen raised Element Solutions from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. UBS Group upped their target price on Element Solutions to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Truist Financial raised their price target on Element Solutions from $38.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Freedom Capital raised Element Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $44.14.

Institutional Trading of Element Solutions

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ESI. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Element Solutions by 13.2% in the 4th 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 during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,485,342 shares of the company’s stock worth $212,053,000 after purchasing an additional 228,416 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake 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 worth $178,968,000 after purchasing an additional 83,033 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 43.6% during the fourth 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 boosted its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 13.9% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Element Solutions Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $10.47 billion, a PE ratio of 69.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 1.91. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $43.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $35.54.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.03. Element Solutions had a return on equity of 14.19% and a net margin of 5.32%.The firm had revenue of $840.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $710.51 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.34 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 41.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.78 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 paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 1st. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Element Solutions’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.61%.

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.