Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Purchases 114,605 Shares of Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. grew its stake in shares of Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) by 1,245.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 123,805 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 114,605 shares during the quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Element Solutions were worth $2,804,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 8.3% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 204,536 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,633,000 after acquiring an additional 15,632 shares during the last quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System boosted its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 76,026 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,722,000 after acquiring an additional 619 shares during the last quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc now owns 622,476 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,099,000 after acquiring an additional 2,518 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 6.6% during the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 30,061 shares of the company’s stock valued at $681,000 after acquiring an additional 1,865 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Grassi Investment Management purchased a new stake in shares of Element Solutions during the 2nd quarter valued at about $204,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ESI. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Element Solutions from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Element Solutions in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Element Solutions from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $27.00 price objective (up previously from $24.00) on shares of Element Solutions in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Fermium Researc raised shares of Element Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Element Solutions currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $27.88.

Element Solutions Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ESI opened at $25.10 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 4.10 and a quick ratio of 3.30. Element Solutions Inc. has a 1-year low of $16.77 and a 1-year high of $29.78. The company has a market capitalization of $6.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.31. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $25.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $23.07.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $625.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $587.45 million. Element Solutions had a net margin of 9.66% and a return on equity of 14.14%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.36 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Element Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.00%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Carey J. Dorman sold 40,725 shares of Element Solutions stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.66, for a total transaction of $1,085,728.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 214,837 shares in the company, valued at $5,727,554.42. This trade represents a 15.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP John Edward Capps sold 77,674 shares of Element Solutions stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.77, for a total transaction of $2,079,332.98. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 609,790 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,324,078.30. The trade was a 11.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 168,399 shares of company stock worth $4,492,561 over the last quarter. Insiders own 6.90% of the company’s stock.

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.