Empowered Funds LLC Buys 45,008 Shares of Ecovyst Inc. $ECVT

Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of Ecovyst Inc. (NYSE:ECVT) by 8.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 566,680 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 45,008 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC owned about 0.52% of Ecovyst worth $7,288,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of ECVT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Ecovyst by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,112,611 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,126,000 after purchasing an additional 191,394 shares during the period. Rubric Capital Management LP raised its stake in Ecovyst by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 10,500,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $102,165,000 after purchasing an additional 100,000 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Ecovyst by 1.7% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,498,654 shares of the company’s stock worth $83,573,000 after purchasing an additional 111,376 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in Ecovyst by 246.6% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,829,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,101,000 after purchasing an additional 3,435,942 shares during the period. Finally, Oaktree Capital Management LP grew its stake in Ecovyst by 48.8% during the fourth quarter. Oaktree Capital Management LP now owns 4,254,503 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,396,000 after buying an additional 1,395,481 shares in the last quarter. 86.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on ECVT shares. Freedom Capital raised shares of Ecovyst to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Ecovyst from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, April 18th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Ecovyst in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on shares of Ecovyst in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. They set an “overweight” rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecovyst presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $13.90.

Ecovyst Stock Performance

NYSE:ECVT opened at $12.08 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $12.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $12.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.32 billion, a PE ratio of -21.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 2.13, a current ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Ecovyst Inc. has a twelve month low of $7.41 and a twelve month high of $15.09.

Ecovyst (NYSE:ECVT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $214.95 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $191.07 million. Ecovyst had a positive return on equity of 11.58% and a negative net margin of 7.71%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 50.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.01 earnings per share. Ecovyst has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.500-0.650 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Ecovyst Inc. will post 0.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Ecovyst

Ecovyst Inc is a global specialty chemicals company that develops, manufactures and markets performance-enhancing products for industrial applications. The company’s core offerings include catalysts, phosphorus-based additives and barium carbonate materials, all designed to improve process efficiency, product quality and environmental performance. Ecovyst serves a diverse customer base in the energy, refining, chemical, polymer, food and consumer goods industries.

The company’s Catalysts segment supplies fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) and hydroprocessing catalysts that help petroleum refiners maximize fuel yield, reduce sulfur emissions and meet increasingly stringent environmental standards.