Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI) Shares Bought by State of Wyoming

State of Wyoming raised its stake in Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI) by 40.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 47,452 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,577 shares during the quarter. State of Wyoming’s holdings in Element Solutions were worth $1,207,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Element Solutions by 80.4% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,921,021 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,282,000 after purchasing an additional 1,301,602 shares during the period. FIL Ltd purchased a new stake in Element Solutions during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,818,000. London Co. of Virginia purchased a new stake in Element Solutions during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,800,000. Boston Partners purchased a new stake in Element Solutions during the fourth quarter valued at about $24,169,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Element Solutions during the fourth quarter valued at about $13,573,000. 92.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Element Solutions news, Director Martin E. Franklin sold 2,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.10, for a total transaction of $52,200,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 109,100 shares in the company, valued at $2,847,510. This represents a 94.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 7.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ESI has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays lowered their price target on Element Solutions from $30.00 to $27.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. KeyCorp lowered their price target on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Element Solutions from $30.00 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. StockNews.com downgraded Element Solutions from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Element Solutions from $34.00 to $30.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.38.

Element Solutions Trading Up 1.1%

NYSE:ESI opened at $22.36 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 2.77 and a current ratio of 3.34. Element Solutions Inc has a one year low of $16.77 and a one year high of $29.78. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $21.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.78. The stock has a market cap of $5.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.24.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.01. Element Solutions had a return on equity of 14.68% and a net margin of 9.94%. The business had revenue of $593.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $576.73 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.34 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Element Solutions Inc will post 1.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions 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.