Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co Invests $709,000 in Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI)

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co bought a new stake in shares of Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 27,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $709,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Element Solutions by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,244,795 shares of the company’s stock valued at $565,685,000 after purchasing an additional 249,280 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its holdings in Element Solutions by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 5,209,130 shares of the company’s stock valued at $132,468,000 after buying an additional 209,441 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Element Solutions by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,555,852 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,456,000 after acquiring an additional 14,339 shares during the last quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC raised its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC now owns 3,174,466 shares of the company’s stock worth $80,727,000 after acquiring an additional 325,297 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Element Solutions by 80.4% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,921,021 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,282,000 after acquiring an additional 1,301,602 shares during the last quarter. 92.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Element Solutions news, Director Martin E. Franklin sold 2,000,000 shares of Element Solutions stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.10, for a total transaction of $52,200,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 109,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,847,510. The trade was a 94.83 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 7.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ESI. Bank of America raised shares of Element Solutions from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $29.00 to $24.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. KeyCorp lowered their price target on shares of Element Solutions from $29.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Element Solutions from $30.00 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Element Solutions from $34.00 to $30.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on Element Solutions from $30.00 to $27.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Element Solutions presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.38.

Element Solutions Price Performance

Shares of ESI opened at $21.08 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $22.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $25.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 2.77 and a current ratio of 3.34. The company has a market capitalization of $5.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.28. Element Solutions Inc has a fifty-two week low of $16.77 and a fifty-two week high of $29.78.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.01. Element Solutions had a net margin of 9.94% and a return on equity of 14.68%. The business had revenue of $593.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $576.73 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.34 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Element Solutions Inc will post 1.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Element Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.89%.

Element Solutions Company Profile

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.