326,094 Shares in Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI) Bought by Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky bought a new position in shares of Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI – Get Rating) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 326,094 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,306,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Element Solutions by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,092,230 shares of the company’s stock worth $359,441,000 after purchasing an additional 214,544 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Element Solutions by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 21,844,504 shares of the company’s stock valued at $388,832,000 after acquiring an additional 740,230 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Element Solutions by 5.1% during the 2nd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 15,221,953 shares of the company’s stock valued at $270,951,000 after acquiring an additional 740,817 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of Element Solutions by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,332,652 shares of the company’s stock valued at $130,521,000 after acquiring an additional 55,674 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of Element Solutions by 14.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 4,317,632 shares of the company’s stock valued at $70,247,000 after acquiring an additional 547,595 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on ESI shares. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Element Solutions from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 15th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Element Solutions from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 28th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group boosted their price target on shares of Element Solutions from $15.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Element Solutions presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $21.08.

Element Solutions Stock Down 2.9 %

ESI stock opened at $18.38 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $20.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $18.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 2.61 and a current ratio of 3.45. Element Solutions Inc has a fifty-two week low of $15.31 and a fifty-two week high of $23.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.18, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.35.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $573.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $589.81 million. Element Solutions had a return on equity of 14.53% and a net margin of 7.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.31 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Element Solutions Inc will post 1.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 1st were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 28th. Element Solutions’s payout ratio is currently 42.11%.

Element Solutions Profile

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Element Solutions, Inc is a specialty chemicals company. It operates under the Electronics, and Industrial and Specialty segments. The Electronics segment focuses on researching, formulating, and selling specialty chemicals and material process technologies for all types of electronics hardware, from complex printed circuit board designs to advanced semiconductor packaging.