Prudential Financial Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

Prudential Financial Inc. lowered its stake in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) by 10.7% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 267,228 shares of the company’s stock after selling 32,187 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Element Solutions were worth $6,053,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 12.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,932,851 shares of the company’s stock valued at $563,732,000 after acquiring an additional 2,688,056 shares during the period. Gates Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Element Solutions by 101.9% in the 1st quarter. Gates Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,424,745 shares of the company’s stock valued at $122,653,000 after purchasing an additional 2,738,250 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Element Solutions by 0.4% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,738,851 shares of the company’s stock valued at $84,699,000 after purchasing an additional 14,471 shares during the period. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Element Solutions by 15.9% during the first quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC now owns 3,680,449 shares of the company’s stock worth $83,215,000 after purchasing an additional 505,983 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Element Solutions by 8.9% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,509,229 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,485,000 after buying an additional 287,291 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Element Solutions Stock Up 0.1%

ESI stock opened at $25.93 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $25.91 and its 200 day moving average price is $24.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.19, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.36. Element Solutions Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $16.77 and a fifty-two week high of $28.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 3.30 and a current ratio of 4.05.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The company reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.02. Element Solutions had a net margin of 9.58% and a return on equity of 14.01%. The company had revenue of $656.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $645.13 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.39 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 1st will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 1st. Element Solutions’s dividend payout ratio is 32.32%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ESI shares. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Element Solutions in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Element Solutions from $31.00 to $29.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Element Solutions from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Element Solutions presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $30.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Ian G. H. Ashken sold 292,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.00, for a total value of $7,884,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 306,880 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,285,760. This represents a 48.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Matthew Liebowitz sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.55, for a total value of $1,327,500.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 57,353 shares in the company, valued at $1,522,722.15. This trade represents a 46.58% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 460,399 shares of company stock valued at $12,376,561 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 6.90% of the company’s stock.

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.