Invesco Ltd. Lowers Stock Position in Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

Invesco Ltd. trimmed its position in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) by 21.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,919,002 shares of the company’s stock after selling 808,730 shares during the quarter. Invesco Ltd. owned about 1.21% of Element Solutions worth $66,115,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Element Solutions by 12.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,932,851 shares of the company’s stock worth $563,732,000 after purchasing an additional 2,688,056 shares during the period. Gates Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 101.9% during the 1st quarter. Gates Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,424,745 shares of the company’s stock valued at $122,653,000 after buying an additional 2,738,250 shares in the last quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in Element Solutions by 17.1% in the 2nd quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC now owns 4,308,630 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,590,000 after buying an additional 628,181 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Element Solutions by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,738,851 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,699,000 after buying an additional 14,471 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Element Solutions by 8.9% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,509,229 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,485,000 after acquiring an additional 287,291 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on ESI shares. UBS Group upped their price objective on Element Solutions from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Fermium Researc upgraded Element Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Element Solutions from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $31.00 to $29.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.75.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Carey J. Dorman sold 40,725 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.66, for a total value of $1,085,728.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 214,837 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,727,554.42. This trade represents a 15.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Ian G. H. Ashken sold 292,000 shares of Element Solutions stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 306,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,285,760. This trade represents a 48.76% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 460,399 shares of company stock worth $12,376,561. Insiders own 6.90% of the company’s stock.

Element Solutions Stock Up 4.5%

NYSE ESI opened at $27.54 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $26.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $24.75. Element Solutions Inc. has a one year low of $16.77 and a one year high of $28.03. The company has a market capitalization of $6.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 3.28 and a current ratio of 4.05.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $645.13 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.39 earnings per share. Element Solutions’s revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 1st. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Element Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.32%.

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.