Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI)

Key Points

• Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC increased its stake in Element Solutions Inc. by 15.9%, now holding approximately 3.68 million shares valued at $83.2 million.
• Wall Street analysts have given Element Solutions a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" with an average target price of $27.38.
• Element Solutions reported $0.37 earnings per share for the last quarter, exceeding estimates and showing a 2% increase in revenue year-over-year.

Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC increased its holdings in shares of Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI - Free Report) by 15.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,680,449 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 505,983 shares during the quarter. Element Solutions accounts for approximately 2.6% of Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest position. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC owned about 1.52% of Element Solutions worth $83,215,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System grew its position in Element Solutions by 490.1% in the 1st quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 75,407 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,705,000 after acquiring an additional 62,629 shares in the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Element Solutions in the 1st quarter valued at about $734,000. Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in Element Solutions by 336.9% in the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 74,778 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,691,000 after acquiring an additional 57,662 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Element Solutions by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,391,832 shares of the company's stock valued at $54,079,000 after acquiring an additional 62,938 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Element Solutions by 12.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,932,851 shares of the company's stock valued at $563,732,000 after acquiring an additional 2,688,056 shares in the last quarter. 92.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on ESI shares. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Element Solutions from $34.00 to $30.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Element Solutions from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Bank of America raised Element Solutions from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $29.00 to $24.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. 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 presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $27.38.

Element Solutions Stock Up 0.9%

ESI stock traded up $0.21 during trading on Friday, hitting $23.88. 1,373,133 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,109,151. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $23.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $23.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.88, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.26. Element Solutions Inc. has a 52-week low of $16.77 and a 52-week high of $29.78. The company has a current ratio of 4.10, a quick ratio of 3.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62.

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

Element Solutions Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. Element Solutions's payout ratio is presently 32.00%.

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.