Grassi Investment Management Acquires Shares of 9,000 Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

Grassi Investment Management acquired a new stake in shares of Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 9,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Element Solutions by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 45,210 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,022,000 after acquiring an additional 529 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 7.1% in the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 10,319 shares of the company’s stock valued at $233,000 after purchasing an additional 681 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS lifted its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 1.9% in the first quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS now owns 47,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,083,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. lifted its stake in Element Solutions by 8.7% in the 1st quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 11,529 shares of the company’s stock worth $261,000 after acquiring an additional 922 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lifted its stake in Element Solutions by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 259,876 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,886,000 after acquiring an additional 1,025 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Element Solutions news, EVP Matthew Liebowitz sold 50,000 shares of Element Solutions stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 57,353 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,522,722.15. The trade was a 46.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP John Edward Capps sold 77,674 shares of Element Solutions stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.77, for a total value of $2,079,332.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 609,790 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,324,078.30. This represents a 11.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 168,399 shares of company stock worth $4,492,561 in the last quarter. 6.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Element Solutions in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Fermium Researc raised shares of Element Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $27.63.

Element Solutions Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of ESI stock opened at $26.91 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $25.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 3.30 and a current ratio of 4.10. Element Solutions Inc. has a twelve month low of $16.77 and a twelve month high of $29.78. The company has a market capitalization of $6.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.91, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.31.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.01. Element Solutions had a net margin of 9.66% and a return on equity of 14.14%. The company had revenue of $625.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $587.45 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.36 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.45 EPS for the current year.

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 2nd. Element Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.00%.

Element Solutions Profile

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.