Royce & Associates LP Reduces Position in Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

Royce & Associates LP trimmed its position in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) by 0.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,674,989 shares of the company’s stock after selling 14,478 shares during the quarter. Element Solutions makes up 0.7% of Royce & Associates LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position. Royce & Associates LP owned approximately 1.11% of Element Solutions worth $67,329,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund raised its stake in Element Solutions by 0.8% in the third quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 51,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,289,000 after buying an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Element Solutions by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 7,415 shares of the company’s stock worth $187,000 after acquiring an additional 433 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 15,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $378,000 after acquiring an additional 558 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its position in shares of Element Solutions by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 16,672 shares of the company’s stock worth $420,000 after acquiring an additional 667 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Element Solutions by 154.8% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,116 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 678 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Element Solutions news, Director E Stanley Oneal sold 143,564 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.52, for a total transaction of $5,099,393.28. Following the sale, the director directly owned 147,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,250,992.64. This trade represents a 49.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Matthew Liebowitz sold 37,000 shares of Element Solutions stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.60, for a total transaction of $984,200.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 117,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,122,653.80. This trade represents a 23.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 6.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ESI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. CJS Securities upgraded shares of Element Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Element Solutions from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Element Solutions from $33.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $37.00 price target on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Element Solutions presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $35.75.

Element Solutions Stock Down 1.8%

ESI stock opened at $35.07 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $8.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $29.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $27.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 3.68 and a quick ratio of 3.00. Element Solutions Inc. has a 12 month low of $16.77 and a 12 month high of $37.74.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.01. Element Solutions had a return on equity of 13.79% and a net margin of 7.48%.The company had revenue of $676.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $632.40 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.35 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Element Solutions Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 2nd will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 2nd. Element Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.51%.

Element Solutions Profile

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.