NewEdge Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Position in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

NewEdge Advisors LLC decreased its position in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) by 79.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,127 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 27,704 shares during the quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC’s holdings in Eastman Chemical were worth $651,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Eastman Chemical during the 4th quarter valued at $150,537,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Eastman Chemical during the fourth quarter valued at about $137,416,000. Wealthfront Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 3,136.8% during the fourth quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 736,011 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $67,213,000 after acquiring an additional 713,272 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Eastman Chemical by 10.8% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,785,259 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $528,310,000 after acquiring an additional 565,821 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,844,165 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $259,729,000 after acquiring an additional 284,271 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on EMN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Eastman Chemical from $110.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup raised shares of Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price target for the company from $105.00 to $101.00 in a report on Friday, April 4th. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Eastman Chemical from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $91.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Eastman Chemical from $111.00 to $108.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $107.08.

Eastman Chemical Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE EMN opened at $75.80 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.38. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $87.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $94.99. Eastman Chemical has a 52-week low of $70.90 and a 52-week high of $114.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The basic materials company reported $1.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.35 billion. Eastman Chemical had a return on equity of 16.27% and a net margin of 9.65%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Eastman Chemical will post 8.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastman Chemical Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.38%. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.23%.

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.