Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI) Shares Purchased by Balyasny Asset Management L.P.

Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI - Free Report) by 132.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 271,973 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 154,842 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. owned 0.11% of Element Solutions worth $6,916,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. TD Private Client Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Element Solutions in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Element Solutions by 610.7% during the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,130 shares of the company's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 971 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont acquired a new stake in Element Solutions during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Element Solutions during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of Element Solutions by 98.8% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,910 shares of the company's stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 949 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.32% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on ESI shares. UBS Group dropped their price target on Element Solutions from $31.00 to $25.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. KeyCorp dropped their price target on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $28.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. StockNews.com lowered Element Solutions from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Element Solutions from $34.00 to $30.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Element Solutions from $30.00 to $24.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Element Solutions currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $26.38.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Martin E. Franklin sold 2,000,000 shares of Element Solutions stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.10, for a total transaction of $52,200,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 109,100 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,847,510. The trade was a 94.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 7.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Element Solutions Price Performance

Element Solutions stock traded down $0.06 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $22.78. 1,884,311 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,959,987. The firm has a market cap of $5.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 2.77, a current ratio of 3.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $21.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.90. Element Solutions Inc has a 1-year low of $16.77 and a 1-year high of $29.78.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.01. Element Solutions had a net margin of 9.94% and a return on equity of 14.68%. The business had revenue of $593.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $576.73 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.34 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Element Solutions Inc will post 1.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Element Solutions's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.89%.

About Element Solutions

Element Solutions Inc operates as a specialty chemicals company in the United States, China, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Electronics, and Industrial & Specialty. The Electronics segment researches, formulates, and sells specialty chemicals and materials for various types of electronics hardware products.