Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) Upgraded at Freedom Capital

Freedom Capital upgraded shares of Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) to a strong-buy rating in a research note released on Friday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Element Solutions from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $33.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Element Solutions from $34.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Mizuho boosted their price target on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, CJS Securities upgraded Element Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $35.75.

Element Solutions Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ESI opened at $33.35 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 3.68 and a quick ratio of 3.00. The firm has a market cap of $8.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $32.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.23. Element Solutions has a one year low of $16.77 and a one year high of $37.74.

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

Element Solutions Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 2nd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. Element Solutions’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.51%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Element Solutions

In other news, Director E Stanley Oneal sold 143,564 shares of Element Solutions stock in a transaction on Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.52, for a total value of $5,099,393.28. Following the transaction, the director owned 147,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,250,992.64. This trade represents a 49.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 6.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Element Solutions

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Element Solutions by 43.6% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,069,238 shares of the company’s stock valued at $176,660,000 after acquiring an additional 2,146,512 shares during the last quarter. Scopus Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 134.6% in the second quarter. Scopus Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,426,156 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,602,000 after acquiring an additional 1,965,691 shares during the last quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP boosted its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 61.7% in the 2nd quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP now owns 4,656,299 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,465,000 after purchasing an additional 1,777,265 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 253.4% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 2,349,862 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,146,000 after purchasing an additional 1,684,994 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jain Global LLC grew its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 253.3% during the 4th quarter. Jain Global LLC now owns 2,127,297 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,161,000 after purchasing an additional 1,525,195 shares during the last quarter. 92.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.