Mizuho Upgrades Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) to Outperform

Mizuho upgraded shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a report published on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. Mizuho currently has $105.00 price target on the basic materials company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Eastman Chemical from $121.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Eastman Chemical from $124.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America raised Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $115.00 to $109.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Eastman Chemical from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $118.00 to $104.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Eastman Chemical from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 18th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.83.

Eastman Chemical Stock Performance

Shares of EMN stock opened at $75.48 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $94.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $98.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.51 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.43. Eastman Chemical has a 12-month low of $73.78 and a 12-month high of $114.50.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.27. Eastman Chemical had a return on equity of 16.27% and a net margin of 9.65%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Eastman Chemical will post 8.55 EPS for the current year.

Eastman Chemical Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.40%. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio is 43.23%.

Institutional Trading of Eastman Chemical

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Eastman Chemical during the fourth quarter worth $150,537,000. Capital World Investors bought a new position in shares of Eastman Chemical during the 4th quarter worth about $137,848,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Eastman Chemical during the 4th quarter valued at about $137,416,000. Wealthfront Advisers LLC raised its position in Eastman Chemical by 3,136.8% in the fourth quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 736,011 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $67,213,000 after purchasing an additional 713,272 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Eastman Chemical by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,886,564 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $537,561,000 after purchasing an additional 697,388 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

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.