Greenleaf Trust Increases Stock Position in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

Greenleaf Trust raised its holdings in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) by 5.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 6,475 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the quarter. Greenleaf Trust’s holdings in Eastman Chemical were worth $582,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Eastman Chemical in the fourth quarter valued at about $216,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Eastman Chemical by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 10,569 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $949,000 after buying an additional 578 shares during the last quarter. Steph & Co. raised its position in shares of Eastman Chemical by 35.6% in the fourth quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 2,393 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $215,000 after buying an additional 628 shares during the last quarter. Telos Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Eastman Chemical in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $214,000. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in shares of Eastman Chemical by 35.5% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 56,577 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,082,000 after buying an additional 14,828 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $101.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Redburn Atlantic assumed coverage on shares of Eastman Chemical in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $89.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Eastman Chemical from $89.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $97.81.

Eastman Chemical Price Performance

EMN opened at $97.06 on Tuesday. 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 has a 52-week low of $68.89 and a 52-week high of $102.71. The company has a 50 day moving average of $92.98 and a two-hundred day moving average of $85.93. The company has a market cap of $11.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.54.

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

Eastman Chemical Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.81 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.34%. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.26%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

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.