Bank of America Corp DE Acquires Shares of 998,729 Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

Key Points

• Bank of America acquired 998,729 shares of Element Solutions worth approximately $47.7 million, representing about 0.41% of the company. Institutional investors collectively own 92.32% of ESI.
• Analysts maintain a generally positive outlook, with a consensus “Buy” rating and an average price target of $46.20, despite some recent target-price reductions.
• Element Solutions exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $0.47 in EPS and $977.9 million in revenue, up 56.4% year over year. The company also pays a quarterly dividend of $0.08 per share, yielding about 1.0% annually.

Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 998,729 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $47,689,000. Bank of America Corp DE owned about 0.41% of Element Solutions as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Element Solutions during the second quarter worth about $1,317,663,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Element Solutions by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,902,401 shares of the company's stock worth $122,536,000 after acquiring an additional 75,365 shares in the last quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC now owns 4,837,611 shares of the company's stock worth $120,892,000 after acquiring an additional 115,147 shares during the period. Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of Element Solutions by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,405,232 shares of the company's stock valued at $85,097,000 after purchasing an additional 123,244 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 36.7% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,977,958 shares of the company's stock valued at $101,667,000 after purchasing an additional 798,923 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.32% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ESI. BMO Capital Markets reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Element Solutions in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Element Solutions from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 10th. Mizuho reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $45.00 target price (down from $54.00) on shares of Element Solutions in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. William Blair set a $48.00 target price on shares of Element Solutions in a research note on Friday, August 28th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Element Solutions from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Element Solutions currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $46.20.

Element Solutions Trading Up 0.2%

NYSE ESI opened at $32.79 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 2.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $36.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $38.38. Element Solutions Inc. has a twelve month low of $22.86 and a twelve month high of $49.25. The company has a market capitalization of $7.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.32, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.26.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $977.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $873.19 million. Element Solutions had a return on equity of 14.88% and a net margin of 5.67%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 56.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.20 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 1st were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 1st. Element Solutions's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.24%.

Element Solutions Company Profile

Element Solutions Inc NYSE: ESI is a global specialty chemicals company that develops and supplies engineered materials and process technologies for the electronics, industrial and energy markets. Its products are used in manufacturing, assembly, protection and performance-enhancement applications across a range of industries.

The company's electronics products support printed circuit board fabrication, semiconductor packaging and assembly, and other electronic component manufacturing processes.

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