Brokerages Set Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) Price Target at $39.57

Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) has received a consensus rating of “Buy” from the eleven analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have assigned a buy recommendation and three have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $39.5714.

A number of brokerages recently commented on ESI. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Wall Street Zen raised Element Solutions from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $37.00 target price on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Element Solutions from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Element Solutions to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th.

Element Solutions Stock Performance

ESI stock opened at $42.34 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $36.83 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.27. Element Solutions has a 1-year low of $20.80 and a 1-year high of $45.51. The company has a current ratio of 2.68, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market cap of $10.32 billion, a PE ratio of 68.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.27.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The company reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.03. Element Solutions had a return on equity of 14.19% and a net margin of 5.32%.The business had revenue of $840.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $710.51 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.34 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 41.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Element Solutions will post 1.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director E Stanley Oneal sold 143,564 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 6.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Element Solutions

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vest Financial LLC increased its holdings in Element Solutions by 126.1% during the 3rd quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 115,531 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,908,000 after purchasing an additional 64,433 shares in the last quarter. Iridian Asset Management LLC CT increased its holdings in Element Solutions by 37.2% during the 4th quarter. Iridian Asset Management LLC CT now owns 264,211 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,603,000 after purchasing an additional 71,686 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Element Solutions by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,256,926 shares of the company’s stock worth $207,822,000 after purchasing an additional 139,751 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its holdings in Element Solutions by 18.6% during the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,234,941 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,083,000 after purchasing an additional 193,487 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Element Solutions by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,195,840 shares of the company’s stock worth $105,609,000 after purchasing an additional 916,804 shares in the last quarter. 92.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Element Solutions Company Profile

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.