Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) Short Interest Up 25.0% in May

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN - Get Free Report) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,000,000 shares, a growth of 25.0% from the April 30th total of 3,200,000 shares. Approximately 3.5% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,420,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.8 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 13.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,886,564 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $537,561,000 after buying an additional 697,388 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 10.8% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,785,259 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $528,310,000 after buying an additional 565,821 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,844,165 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $259,729,000 after buying an additional 284,271 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,843,506 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $259,669,000 after buying an additional 109,316 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,832,593 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $257,986,000 after buying an additional 48,491 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.65% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on EMN. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Eastman Chemical from a "sector perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $91.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $76.00 price target (down from $112.00) on shares of Eastman Chemical in a research report on Monday, April 28th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Eastman Chemical from $111.00 to $107.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $105.00 to $99.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Barclays reduced 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 report on Tuesday, April 29th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $98.54.

Eastman Chemical Price Performance

Shares of NYSE EMN traded down $0.49 during trading on Thursday, reaching $80.34. The company had a trading volume of 450,737 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,417,382. Eastman Chemical has a 52 week low of $70.90 and a 52 week high of $114.50. The stock has a market cap of $9.28 billion, a PE ratio of 10.46, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 1.51. The business's 50 day moving average price is $79.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $90.11.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The basic materials company reported $1.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.02. Eastman Chemical had a net margin of 9.65% and a return on equity of 16.27%. The company had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.35 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.61 earnings per share. The company's revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Eastman Chemical will post 8.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastman Chemical Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Eastman Chemical's dividend payout ratio is currently 42.24%.

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.