Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Buys 10,399 Shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) by 34.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 40,919 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,399 shares during the quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Eastman Chemical were worth $3,675,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,978,856 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $305,258,000 after acquiring an additional 39,860 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Eastman Chemical by 37.4% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,795,824 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $214,496,000 after buying an additional 760,974 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Eastman Chemical by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,463,133 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $207,261,000 after buying an additional 17,555 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Eastman Chemical by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,407,774 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $184,724,000 after buying an additional 51,788 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in Eastman Chemical by 18.7% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,885,179 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $158,996,000 after buying an additional 296,610 shares in the last quarter. 83.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Adrian James Holt sold 4,735 shares of Eastman Chemical stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.75, for a total transaction of $415,496.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $102.00 to $101.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 5th. Redburn Atlantic assumed coverage on shares of Eastman Chemical in a report on Thursday, February 15th. They set a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $89.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $95.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Eastman Chemical currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.13.

Eastman Chemical Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of EMN opened at $96.43 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $11.34 billion, a PE ratio of 12.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.54. The business has a fifty day moving average of $91.91 and a 200 day moving average of $85.33. Eastman Chemical has a 52-week low of $68.89 and a 52-week high of $102.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The basic materials company reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.21 billion. Eastman Chemical had a return on equity of 14.15% and a net margin of 9.71%. Eastman Chemical’s revenue was down 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.89 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Eastman Chemical will post 7.7 EPS for the current year.

Eastman Chemical Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.81 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.36%. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.26%.

About Eastman Chemical

Eastman Chemical Company operates as a specialty materials company in the United States, China, and internationally. The company's Additives & Functional Products segment offers amine derivative-based building blocks, intermediates for surfactants, metam-based soil fumigants, and organic acid-based solutions; specialty coalescent and solvents, paint additives, and specialty polymers; and heat transfer and aviation fluids.