Bank of America Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) Stock

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) had its target price upped by equities research analysts at Bank of America from $31.00 to $33.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Bank of America‘s price objective indicates a potential upside of 12.63% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Element Solutions from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. UBS Group increased their target price on Element Solutions from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Element Solutions from $31.00 to $29.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Element Solutions from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Element Solutions in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Element Solutions has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.50.

Element Solutions Trading Down 0.7%

ESI opened at $29.30 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $26.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.88. Element Solutions has a 1-year low of $16.77 and a 1-year high of $29.88. The company has a market cap of $7.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 4.05, a quick ratio of 3.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The company reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.02. Element Solutions had a return on equity of 14.01% and a net margin of 9.58%.The company had revenue of $656.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $645.13 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.39 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Element Solutions will post 1.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Ian G. H. Ashken sold 292,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.00, for a total transaction of $7,884,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 306,880 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,285,760. This trade represents a 48.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 117,393 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,122,653.80. This represents a 23.96% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 6.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Element Solutions

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Element Solutions by 1.7% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,256,926 shares of the company’s stock valued at $207,822,000 after purchasing an additional 139,751 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Element Solutions by 68.6% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,922,726 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,905,000 after buying an additional 2,003,724 shares during the last quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC now owns 4,722,464 shares of the company’s stock worth $118,864,000 after acquiring an additional 413,834 shares during the period. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP grew its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 61.7% during the 2nd quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP now owns 4,656,299 shares of the company’s stock worth $105,465,000 after acquiring an additional 1,777,265 shares during the period. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its holdings in Element Solutions by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 4,426,445 shares of the company’s stock worth $111,414,000 after acquiring an additional 129,590 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

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.