Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Lowers Position in Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lowered its position in shares of Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI - Free Report) by 37.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 871,346 shares of the company's stock after selling 525,372 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned 0.36% of Element Solutions worth $22,160,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Dark Forest Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 55.8% during the 4th quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 72,168 shares of the company's stock worth $1,835,000 after purchasing an additional 25,842 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its stake in Element Solutions by 116.1% in the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 18,817 shares of the company's stock valued at $479,000 after acquiring an additional 10,108 shares during the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Element Solutions by 171.3% during the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 26,816 shares of the company's stock valued at $682,000 after acquiring an additional 16,931 shares during the period. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,696 shares of the company's stock worth $399,000 after purchasing an additional 793 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 393.5% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 9,613 shares of the company's stock worth $244,000 after purchasing an additional 7,665 shares during the period. 92.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Element Solutions Price Performance

NYSE ESI traded up $0.01 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $20.73. 420,078 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,936,431. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $22.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $25.03. Element Solutions Inc has a 1 year low of $16.77 and a 1 year high of $29.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 3.34 and a quick ratio of 2.77. The company has a market cap of $5.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Element Solutions's dividend payout ratio is presently 26.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ESI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Element Solutions from $30.00 to $24.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Element Solutions from $34.00 to $30.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $30.00 to $27.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. StockNews.com cut shares of Element Solutions from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Element Solutions from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $29.00 to $24.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Element Solutions currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $26.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Element Solutions

In other Element Solutions news, Director Martin E. Franklin sold 2,000,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 109,100 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,847,510. This represents a 94.83 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 7.90% of the company's stock.

Element Solutions Company Profile

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.