Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Increases Stake in Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. increased its holdings in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) by 1,245.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 123,805 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 114,605 shares during the period. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. owned approximately 0.05% of Element Solutions worth $2,804,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. American National Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in shares of Element Solutions in the 2nd quarter valued at $36,000. SVB Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Element Solutions during the 1st quarter valued at $37,000. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its position in Element Solutions by 462.5% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 2,160 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 1,776 shares during the period. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC boosted its position in Element Solutions by 940.6% during the 1st quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 2,279 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 2,060 shares during the period. Finally, Covestor Ltd boosted its position in Element Solutions by 311.3% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 3,126 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,000 after buying an additional 2,366 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ESI has been the subject of several analyst reports. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Element Solutions from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $27.00 price target (up previously from $24.00) on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Element Solutions from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Fermium Researc raised shares of Element Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Finally, KeyCorp upped 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $27.88.

Element Solutions Stock Up 4.8%

Shares of Element Solutions stock 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. The company has a 50-day moving average of $25.53 and a 200 day moving average of $23.07. The firm has a market cap of $6.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.10, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.31. Element Solutions Inc. has a 1 year low of $16.77 and a 1 year high of $29.78.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $625.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $587.45 million. Element Solutions had a net margin of 9.66% and a return on equity of 14.14%. Element Solutions’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.36 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Element Solutions

In other Element Solutions news, EVP Carey J. Dorman sold 40,725 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 214,837 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,727,554.42. This trade represents a 15.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP John Edward Capps sold 77,674 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,324,078.30. This represents a 11.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 168,399 shares of company stock worth $4,492,561. 6.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.