Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) EVP Sells $1,085,728.50 in Stock

Key Points

• EVP Carey Dorman of Element Solutions Inc. sold 40,725 shares for an approximate total of $1,085,728.50, decreasing his ownership by 15.94% to 214,837 shares.
• The company reported a quarterly earnings per share of $0.37, beating estimates and showing a 2.0% increase in revenue year-over-year at $625.20 million.
• Hedge funds and institutional investors own 92.32% of Element Solutions, with Vanguard and Gates Capital among those significantly increasing their stakes recently.

Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI - Get Free Report) EVP Carey Dorman sold 40,725 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.66, for a total value of $1,085,728.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 214,837 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,727,554.42. This represents a 15.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Element Solutions Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of NYSE ESI traded down $0.47 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $26.52. 6,265,477 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,510,650. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a current ratio of 4.10, a quick ratio of 3.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The company's 50 day moving average price is $24.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $23.04. Element Solutions Inc. has a 12 month low of $16.77 and a 12 month high of $29.78.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.01. Element Solutions had a return on equity of 14.14% and a net margin of 9.66%.The firm had revenue of $625.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $587.45 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.36 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. Element Solutions's payout ratio is presently 32.00%.

Institutional Trading of Element Solutions

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 12.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,932,851 shares of the company's stock worth $563,732,000 after buying an additional 2,688,056 shares during the last quarter. Gates Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 101.9% in the first quarter. Gates Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,424,745 shares of the company's stock worth $122,653,000 after buying an additional 2,738,250 shares during the last quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP boosted its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 61.7% in the second quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP now owns 4,656,299 shares of the company's stock worth $105,465,000 after buying an additional 1,777,265 shares during the last quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC boosted its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 17.1% in the second quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC now owns 4,308,630 shares of the company's stock worth $97,590,000 after buying an additional 628,181 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 0.4% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,738,851 shares of the company's stock worth $84,699,000 after buying an additional 14,471 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.32% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ESI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. KeyCorp upped their target price on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Fermium Researc raised Element Solutions to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $27.00 price target (up from $24.00) on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on Element Solutions from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Element Solutions currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $27.38.

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.

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