Reinhart Partners LLC. Purchases 720,365 Shares of Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

Key Points

• Reinhart Partners LLC increased its stake in Element Solutions Inc. by 77.4% during the 2nd quarter, owning approximately 0.68% of the company worth $37.4 million.
• Several institutional investors, including Harbor Capital Advisors and UBS Group, have also raised their holdings in Element Solutions, contributing to institutional ownership now at 92.32%.
• Analysts have increased their price targets for Element Solutions, with the average target price now at $27.38 and a general rating of "Buy."

Reinhart Partners LLC. lifted its position in shares of Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI - Free Report) by 77.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,650,624 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 720,365 shares during the period. Reinhart Partners LLC. owned 0.68% of Element Solutions worth $37,387,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Gates Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Element Solutions by 101.9% during the first quarter. Gates Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,424,745 shares of the company's stock valued at $122,653,000 after acquiring an additional 2,738,250 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 12.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,932,851 shares of the company's stock worth $563,732,000 after buying an additional 2,688,056 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 131.0% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,861,197 shares of the company's stock worth $64,692,000 after buying an additional 1,622,819 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 1,431.1% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,143,869 shares of the company's stock valued at $25,863,000 after buying an additional 1,069,160 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Element Solutions during the 1st quarter valued at $20,041,000. 92.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Element Solutions Stock Performance

Element Solutions stock traded down $0.47 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $26.52. 6,265,477 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,717,859. The firm's 50 day moving average is $24.97 and its 200 day moving average is $23.04. 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 market cap of $6.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.31. Element Solutions Inc. has a 52-week low of $16.77 and a 52-week high of $29.78.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 9.66% and a return on equity of 14.14%. The firm had revenue of $625.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $587.45 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.36 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Element Solutions's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.00%.

Insider Activity at Element Solutions

In other news, EVP John Edward Capps sold 77,674 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.77, for a total transaction of $2,079,332.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 609,790 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,324,078.30. This represents a 11.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Matthew Liebowitz sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.55, for a total transaction of $1,327,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 57,353 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,522,722.15. This represents a 46.58% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 168,399 shares of company stock valued at $4,492,561 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 6.90% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on ESI. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Element Solutions from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Fermium Researc upgraded shares of Element Solutions to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Element Solutions from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $27.00 target price (up previously from $24.00) on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus 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.