Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) Short Interest Up 28.3% in March

Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 12,855,609 shares, a growth of 28.3% from the March 15th total of 10,016,956 shares. Approximately 5.6% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 2,735,776 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.7 days.

Element Solutions Trading Down 1.8%

Element Solutions stock opened at $37.52 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 3.68, a quick ratio of 3.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. Element Solutions has a 12 month low of $17.77 and a 12 month high of $38.49. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $33.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $29.08.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $676.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $632.40 million. Element Solutions had a return on equity of 13.79% and a net margin of 7.48%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.35 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Element Solutions 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, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 2nd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 2nd. Element Solutions’s dividend payout ratio is 40.51%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Element Solutions news, Director E Stanley Oneal sold 143,564 shares of Element Solutions stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.52, for a total value of $5,099,393.28. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 147,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,250,992.64. The trade was a 49.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 6.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Element Solutions

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Millennium Management LLC increased its position in Element Solutions by 339.3% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 446,622 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,098,000 after buying an additional 344,950 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Element Solutions by 60.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,894,061 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,825,000 after buying an additional 712,466 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in Element Solutions by 4.5% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 872,451 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,726,000 after buying an additional 37,204 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth purchased a new stake in Element Solutions in the first quarter worth about $400,000. Finally, Amundi increased its position in Element Solutions by 258,233.3% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 93,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,237,000 after buying an additional 92,964 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Element Solutions from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Mizuho lifted their price target on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Freedom Capital upgraded Element Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price target on Element Solutions from $33.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Element Solutions presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $35.75.

About Element Solutions

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.