Freestone Grove Partners LP Acquires Shares of 13,345 Orion S.A. (NYSE:OEC)

Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new position in Orion S.A. (NYSE:OEC) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 13,345 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in Orion in the 4th quarter valued at about $171,000. Trexquant Investment LP purchased a new position in shares of Orion in the fourth quarter worth about $206,000. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Orion in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $259,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Orion by 19.2% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 22,577 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $357,000 after buying an additional 3,630 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in Orion by 18.0% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 23,911 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $378,000 after buying an additional 3,646 shares during the period. 94.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Orion

In related news, VP Carlos Quinones purchased 3,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $13.07 per share, with a total value of $43,131.00. Following the acquisition, the vice president now directly owns 79,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,041,705.14. This represents a 4.32 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on OEC. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Orion from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Orion from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $18.00 to $12.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 24th.

Orion Price Performance

OEC stock opened at $12.01 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $12.61 and a 200-day moving average of $14.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $676.39 million, a P/E ratio of 16.01 and a beta of 1.20. Orion S.A. has a 12 month low of $10.45 and a 12 month high of $26.05.

Orion (NYSE:OEC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $434.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $437.03 million. Orion had a net margin of 2.35% and a return on equity of 20.94%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Orion S.A. will post 1.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Orion Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 11th will be paid a $0.0207 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 11th. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. Orion’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.67%.

Orion Profile

Orion SA, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of carbon black products. It operates in two segments, Specialty Carbon Black and Rubber Carbon Black. The company offers post-treated specialty carbon black grades for coatings and printing applications; high purity carbon black grades for the fiber industry; and conductive carbon black grades for batteries, polymers, and coatings.