New South Capital Management Inc. Sells 7,462 Shares of Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI)

New South Capital Management Inc. lowered its stake in Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI) by 0.4% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,832,774 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,462 shares during the quarter. Element Solutions accounts for approximately 2.0% of New South Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. New South Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Element Solutions were worth $49,778,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in ESI. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 149.2% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,934,310 shares of the company’s stock worth $106,698,000 after acquiring an additional 2,355,554 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors bought a new position in shares of Element Solutions in the first quarter worth about $44,527,000. Driehaus Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Element Solutions in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $32,364,000. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its holdings in Element Solutions by 14.7% in the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,289,741 shares of the company’s stock valued at $143,458,000 after buying an additional 676,432 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in Element Solutions by 43.5% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,134,112 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,757,000 after buying an additional 344,017 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ESI. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Element Solutions from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Element Solutions from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Element Solutions from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 2nd. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Element Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Element Solutions from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Element Solutions presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $31.00.

Element Solutions Stock Down 0.8 %

ESI traded down $0.22 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $28.52. 9,168 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,366,705. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 2.77 and a current ratio of 3.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.91 billion, a PE ratio of 25.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $26.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.79. Element Solutions Inc has a 1 year low of $19.11 and a 1 year high of $29.16.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $645.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $626.52 million. Element Solutions had a net margin of 11.08% and a return on equity of 14.42%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.36 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Element Solutions Inc will post 1.44 EPS for the current year.

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. Element Solutions’s payout ratio is 28.83%.

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.