Ieq Capital LLC Buys 104,283 Shares of Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

Key Points

• Ieq Capital LLC significantly increased its stake in Element Solutions Inc. by 261.6%, acquiring an additional 104,283 shares during the first quarter, bringing its total ownership to about 0.06% of the company valued at $3.26 million.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for Element Solutions, with Mizuho and Goldman Sachs both increasing them to $27.00, while UBS and KeyCorp set targets of $30.00, reflecting a generally positive outlook.
• Element Solutions recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.08 per share, translating to an annual yield of 1.2%, with a payout ratio of 32.00%.

Ieq Capital LLC raised its stake in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI - Free Report) by 261.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 144,144 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 104,283 shares during the quarter. Ieq Capital LLC owned approximately 0.06% of Element Solutions worth $3,259,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ESI. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its stake in Element Solutions by 100.5% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 3,469 shares of the company's stock valued at $88,000 after purchasing an additional 1,739 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its position in shares of Element Solutions by 393.5% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 9,613 shares of the company's stock valued at $244,000 after buying an additional 7,665 shares during the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Element Solutions by 171.3% in the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 26,816 shares of the company's stock valued at $682,000 after buying an additional 16,931 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its position in shares of Element Solutions by 116.1% in the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 18,817 shares of the company's stock valued at $479,000 after buying an additional 10,108 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Element Solutions by 18.9% in the fourth quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,835 shares of the company's stock valued at $250,000 after buying an additional 1,563 shares during the last quarter. 92.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho raised their price objective on Element Solutions from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $27.00 price objective (up from $24.00) on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $27.38.

Element Solutions Stock Performance

NYSE:ESI opened at $25.71 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $6.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.71, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.26. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $24.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $23.04. 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 Inc. has a 1-year low of $16.77 and a 1-year high of $29.78.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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 business 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 for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Element Solutions Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. Element Solutions's payout ratio is currently 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.

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