United Community Bank Takes $1.83 Million Position in Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN)

United Community Bank bought a new position in shares of Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 20,732 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $1,827,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EMN. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd bought a new position in Eastman Chemical during the first quarter valued at about $344,000. Prudent Man Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Prudent Man Advisors LLC now owns 6,651 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $586,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 34.1% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,199 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $546,000 after acquiring an additional 1,578 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR increased its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 1,477.8% in the first quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 45,268 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,989,000 after buying an additional 42,399 shares during the period. Finally, Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new position in Eastman Chemical during the 1st quarter valued at $204,000. 83.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Eastman Chemical Stock Up 0.5%

NYSE:EMN traded up $0.40 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $77.95. 317,029 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,245,517. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 1.72. Eastman Chemical Company has a twelve month low of $70.90 and a twelve month high of $114.50. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $79.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $85.73. The firm has a market cap of $9.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.22.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The basic materials company reported $1.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.02. Eastman Chemical had a return on equity of 16.59% and a net margin of 9.85%. The company had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.35 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.61 EPS. The firm's revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Eastman Chemical Company will post 8.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Eastman Chemical Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th were paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.26%. Eastman Chemical's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 42.24%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on EMN shares. Citigroup upgraded shares of Eastman Chemical from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and cut their price target for the company from $105.00 to $101.00 in a report on Friday, April 4th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $107.00 to $101.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Mizuho raised shares of Eastman Chemical from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $105.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Eastman Chemical from $125.00 to $115.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Eastman Chemical from $105.00 to $99.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Eastman Chemical currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $97.08.

About Eastman Chemical

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.