Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC Raises 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 lifted its stake in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI - Free Report) by 15.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,680,449 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 505,983 shares during the quarter. Element Solutions makes up 2.6% of Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC's holdings, making the stock its 19th largest position. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC owned about 1.52% of Element Solutions worth $83,215,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Element Solutions by 12.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,932,851 shares of the company's stock worth $563,732,000 after purchasing an additional 2,688,056 shares during the period. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC raised its holdings in Element Solutions by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 5,026,543 shares of the company's stock worth $127,825,000 after purchasing an additional 146,570 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Element Solutions by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,555,852 shares of the company's stock worth $90,456,000 after purchasing an additional 14,339 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Element Solutions by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,783,935 shares of the company's stock worth $70,795,000 after purchasing an additional 142,295 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in Element Solutions by 31.0% in the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,753,606 shares of the company's stock worth $62,259,000 after purchasing an additional 651,251 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.32% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. UBS Group increased their target price on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. KeyCorp increased their target price on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Truist Financial raised Element Solutions from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $28.00 to $24.00 in a report on Monday, April 14th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Element Solutions from $34.00 to $30.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Bank of America raised Element Solutions from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $29.00 to $24.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Two investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Element Solutions presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $27.38.

Element Solutions Price Performance

Shares of ESI stock traded up $0.93 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $24.71. The company had a trading volume of 350,361 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,614,772. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 3.30 and a current ratio of 4.10. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $23.15 and a 200-day moving average of $23.03. The company has a market capitalization of $5.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.71, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.26. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $625.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $587.45 million. Element Solutions had a return on equity of 14.14% and a net margin of 9.66%. The business's revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.36 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Element Solutions Dividend Announcement

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