Swedbank AB Makes New Investment in Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 201,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,862,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ESI. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Element Solutions by 13.2% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,119,999 shares of the company’s stock valued at $277,889,000 after acquiring an additional 1,298,273 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Element Solutions by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,485,342 shares of the company’s stock worth $212,053,000 after purchasing an additional 228,416 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Element Solutions by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,161,586 shares of the company’s stock valued at $178,968,000 after purchasing an additional 83,033 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Element Solutions by 43.6% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,069,238 shares of the company’s stock valued at $176,660,000 after purchasing an additional 2,146,512 shares during the period. Finally, FIL Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 13.9% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 5,089,359 shares of the company’s stock valued at $127,183,000 after purchasing an additional 621,448 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ESI has been the subject of several analyst reports. Seaport Research Partners reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $49.00 price target on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Element Solutions from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Freedom Capital raised shares of Element Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $47.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Element Solutions to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $44.29.

Element Solutions Trading Down 1.7%

ESI traded down $0.69 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $39.88. 5,994,184 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,765,437. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.32, a PEG ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.23. Element Solutions Inc. has a one year low of $22.63 and a one year high of $49.25. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a current ratio of 2.68.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last announced its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $840.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $710.51 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.34 EPS. Element Solutions’s revenue was up 41.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 1st. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Element Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.61%.

Element Solutions 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.