Nomura Holdings Inc. Buys New Holdings in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 3,821 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $349,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Eastman Chemical by 3.5% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 315,044 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $35,268,000 after acquiring an additional 10,695 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Eastman Chemical in the 4th quarter valued at $242,000. HB Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 133.7% during the 4th quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,354 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $489,000 after buying an additional 3,063 shares in the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management lifted its position in shares of Eastman Chemical by 14.6% during the 4th quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 44,675 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $4,081,000 after buying an additional 5,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wesbanco Bank Inc. boosted its stake in Eastman Chemical by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 3,273 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $299,000 after buying an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.65% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on EMN. Wall Street Zen downgraded Eastman Chemical from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $108.00 to $85.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $76.00 target price (down previously from $112.00) on shares of Eastman Chemical in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Mizuho raised shares of Eastman Chemical from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $105.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on Eastman Chemical from $111.00 to $107.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $98.54.

Eastman Chemical Trading Down 0.9%

EMN traded down $0.74 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $81.74. 360,109 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,302,984. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $80.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $90.91. Eastman Chemical has a 1-year low of $70.90 and a 1-year high of $114.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The basic materials company reported $1.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.02. Eastman Chemical had a return on equity of 16.27% and a net margin of 9.65%. The company had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.35 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.61 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Eastman Chemical will post 8.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eastman Chemical Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Eastman Chemical's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.24%.

Eastman Chemical Company Profile

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.