Alps Advisors Inc. Purchases New Stake in Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN)

Alps Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 3,940 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $347,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EMN. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Eastman Chemical during the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. Orion Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Eastman Chemical during the fourth quarter worth about $47,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC raised its position in Eastman Chemical by 46.4% during the first quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 536 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its position in Eastman Chemical by 135.7% during the fourth quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 528 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 304 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new position in Eastman Chemical during the first quarter worth about $50,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.65% of the company's stock.

Eastman Chemical Trading Up 0.9%

Eastman Chemical stock traded up $0.67 during trading on Thursday, reaching $78.22. The company had a trading volume of 799,800 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,250,414. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 1.72. Eastman Chemical Company has a 12-month low of $70.90 and a 12-month high of $114.50. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $79.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $85.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.95, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.22.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The basic materials company reported $1.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.02. Eastman Chemical had a net margin of 9.85% and a return on equity of 16.59%. The company had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.35 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.61 earnings per share. Eastman Chemical's revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Eastman Chemical Company will post 8.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Eastman Chemical Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th were paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.24%. Eastman Chemical's dividend payout ratio is currently 42.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on EMN. KeyCorp lowered their price target on shares of Eastman Chemical from $106.00 to $93.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday. Mizuho upgraded shares of Eastman Chemical from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $105.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of Eastman Chemical from a "sector perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $91.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Eastman Chemical from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Eastman Chemical from $108.00 to $85.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $97.08.

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.