Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires Shares of 100,900 Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 100,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,445,000.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Iridian Asset Management LLC CT grew its position in shares of Element Solutions by 37.2% during the 4th quarter. Iridian Asset Management LLC CT now owns 264,211 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,603,000 after buying an additional 71,686 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Element Solutions by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,256,926 shares of the company’s stock valued at $207,822,000 after acquiring an additional 139,751 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 28.0% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,195,840 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,609,000 after buying an additional 916,804 shares during the period. Peak Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Element Solutions by 282.4% during the fourth quarter. Peak Financial Advisors LLC now owns 79,797 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,994,000 after acquiring an additional 58,929 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in shares of Element Solutions by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 2,524,090 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,077,000 after purchasing an additional 174,228 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ESI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Element Solutions in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Seaport Research Partners reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $49.00 price target on shares of Element Solutions in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Tuesday, May 19th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Element Solutions to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Freedom Capital upgraded Element Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.57.

Element Solutions Stock Performance

ESI opened at $45.74 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $34.82. Element Solutions Inc. has a 52-week low of $22.44 and a 52-week high of $49.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a current ratio of 2.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.14 billion, a PE ratio of 73.78, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.25.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The company reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.03. Element Solutions had a return on equity of 14.19% and a net margin of 5.32%.The company had revenue of $840.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $710.51 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.34 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 41.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 1st. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Element Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.61%.

Element Solutions Company Profile

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.