Element Solutions Inc. $ESI Shares Sold by Raymond James Financial Inc.

Key Points

• Raymond James Financial Inc. has decreased its stake in Element Solutions Inc. by 57.3%, selling 305,717 shares and now owning about 0.09% of the company worth approximately $5.15 million.
• Vanguard Group Inc. significantly increased its holdings in Element Solutions by 12.1%, now owning nearly 24.93 million shares valued at approximately $563.73 million.
• Element Solutions announced a quarterly dividend of $0.08 per share, with a yield of 1.2%, payable on September 15th to shareholders of record on September 2nd.

Raymond James Financial Inc. reduced its holdings in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI - Free Report) by 57.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 228,012 shares of the company's stock after selling 305,717 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned about 0.09% of Element Solutions worth $5,155,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ESI. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Element Solutions by 12.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,932,851 shares of the company's stock valued at $563,732,000 after purchasing an additional 2,688,056 shares during the period. London Co. of Virginia acquired a new stake in Element Solutions in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,800,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Element Solutions by 1,431.1% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,143,869 shares of the company's stock valued at $25,863,000 after purchasing an additional 1,069,160 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Element Solutions in the first quarter valued at approximately $20,041,000. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board purchased a new position in shares of Element Solutions in the first quarter valued at approximately $15,976,000. 92.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Element Solutions Trading Down 1.7%

NYSE:ESI traded down $0.46 on Tuesday, reaching $25.82. The company's stock had a trading volume of 535,472 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,517,065. Element Solutions Inc. has a 12-month low of $16.77 and a 12-month high of $29.78. The company has a quick ratio of 3.30, a current ratio of 4.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The firm has a market cap of $6.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.31. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $24.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $22.98.

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

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Element Solutions's payout ratio is presently 32.00%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ESI. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $27.00 target price (up previously from $24.00) on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Mizuho raised their target price on Element Solutions from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. KeyCorp raised their target price on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $27.38.

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.