Short Interest in Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI) Declines By 5.8%

Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI) saw a large drop in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,580,000 shares, a drop of 5.8% from the March 15th total of 3,800,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,340,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.7 days. Currently, 1.6% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Insider Transactions at Element Solutions

In other news, EVP Michael Goralski sold 1,169 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.20, for a total value of $27,120.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 146,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,394,090.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CFO Carey J. Dorman sold 1,410 shares of Element Solutions stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.20, for a total value of $32,712.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 177,113 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,109,021.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Michael Goralski sold 1,169 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.20, for a total transaction of $27,120.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 146,297 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,394,090.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 97,203 shares of company stock valued at $2,255,110. 7.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Element Solutions

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 47.2% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,403,980 shares of the company’s stock worth $86,362,000 after acquiring an additional 1,412,706 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Element Solutions in the fourth quarter worth $23,205,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 4.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,719,174 shares of the company’s stock valued at $445,523,000 after acquiring an additional 1,035,756 shares during the last quarter. Glenview Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Element Solutions by 35.2% in the 4th quarter. Glenview Capital Management LLC now owns 3,762,620 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,067,000 after buying an additional 979,798 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lifted its stake in Element Solutions by 10,622.4% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 848,567 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,636,000 after acquiring an additional 840,653 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 topic of several recent research reports. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. TheStreet raised shares of Element Solutions from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Element Solutions in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Element Solutions from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $25.60.

Element Solutions Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:ESI traded down $0.22 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $24.23. 102,182 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,299,217. The stock has a market cap of $5.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.32. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $24.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $21.99. Element Solutions has a 12-month low of $17.08 and a 12-month high of $25.81. The company has a current ratio of 3.24, a quick ratio of 2.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The company reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.32. The business had revenue of $573.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $590.43 million. Element Solutions had a return on equity of 13.51% and a net margin of 5.06%. Element Solutions’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.29 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Element Solutions will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Element Solutions’s payout ratio is currently 65.31%.

About Element Solutions

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.