South Dakota Investment Council Raises Stake in Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN)

South Dakota Investment Council boosted its position in Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN) by 10.2% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 83,138 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,700 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Eastman Chemical were worth $7,325,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 13.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,886,564 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $537,561,000 after buying an additional 697,388 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 10.8% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,785,259 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $528,310,000 after buying an additional 565,821 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,844,165 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $259,729,000 after buying an additional 284,271 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,843,506 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $259,669,000 after buying an additional 109,316 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,832,593 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $257,986,000 after buying an additional 48,491 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on EMN shares. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Eastman Chemical from $105.00 to $99.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Mizuho raised Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. KeyCorp cut their target price on Eastman Chemical from $106.00 to $93.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $76.00 target price (down from $112.00) on shares of Eastman Chemical in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Eastman Chemical from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $97.08.

Eastman Chemical Stock Performance

Shares of EMN opened at $77.74 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $79.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $85.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 1.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.98 billion, a PE ratio of 9.89, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.22. Eastman Chemical Company has a 1 year low of $70.90 and a 1 year high of $114.50.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The basic materials company reported $1.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.35 billion. Eastman Chemical had a return on equity of 16.59% and a net margin of 9.85%. The firm’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.61 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Eastman Chemical Company will post 8.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Eastman Chemical Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th were given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.27%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 13th. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.24%.

Eastman Chemical Company Profile

Eastman Chemical Company operates as a specialty materials company in the United States, China, and internationally. The company's Additives & Functional Products segment offers amine derivative-based building blocks, intermediates for surfactants, metam-based soil fumigants, and organic acid-based solutions; specialty coalescent and solvents, paint additives, and specialty polymers; and heat transfer and aviation fluids.