Bessemer Group Inc. Purchases 231 Shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 17,597 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 231 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc.’s holdings in Eastman Chemical were worth $1,607,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Eastman Chemical during the fourth quarter worth about $150,537,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Eastman Chemical during the 4th quarter worth approximately $137,416,000. Wealthfront Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Eastman Chemical by 3,136.8% in the fourth quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 736,011 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $67,213,000 after buying an additional 713,272 shares in the last quarter. 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. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Eastman Chemical by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,844,165 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $259,729,000 after acquiring an additional 284,271 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Eastman Chemical Price Performance

NYSE:EMN opened at $78.22 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.01 billion, a PE ratio of 10.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.38. Eastman Chemical has a 1-year low of $70.90 and a 1-year high of $114.50. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $92.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $97.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.27. Eastman Chemical had a net margin of 9.65% and a return on equity of 16.27%. On average, research analysts expect that Eastman Chemical will post 8.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eastman Chemical Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.24%. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio is 43.23%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on EMN shares. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $123.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Eastman Chemical from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, January 18th. Mizuho upgraded Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Barclays cut their target price on Eastman Chemical from $111.00 to $108.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $105.00 to $101.00 in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Eastman Chemical has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $107.75.

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.