Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Increases Stock Position in Orion S.A. $OEC

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Orion S.A. (NYSE:OEC) by 698.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 132,424 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 115,831 shares during the quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd owned about 0.24% of Orion worth $1,389,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of OEC. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Orion by 30.3% during the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 13,108 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $169,000 after buying an additional 3,046 shares in the last quarter. Minneapolis Portfolio Management Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Orion by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Minneapolis Portfolio Management Group LLC now owns 1,946,739 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $25,171,000 after buying an additional 24,041 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Orion by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,638,320 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $34,113,000 after buying an additional 21,033 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its stake in shares of Orion by 831.7% during the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,662 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $86,000 after buying an additional 5,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Isthmus Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Orion by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Isthmus Partners LLC now owns 145,965 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,887,000 after buying an additional 5,928 shares in the last quarter. 94.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on OEC. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Orion in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $9.00 target price (down previously from $10.00) on shares of Orion in a report on Monday, August 11th. Mizuho set a $6.00 target price on shares of Orion in a report on Monday, October 20th. UBS Group lowered shares of Orion from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $12.00 to $7.00 in a report on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Orion from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Orion has an average rating of “Strong Sell” and a consensus target price of $7.33.

Orion Stock Performance

Orion stock opened at $5.29 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $7.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $296.75 million, a PE ratio of 19.57 and a beta of 1.02. Orion S.A. has a 1-year low of $5.12 and a 1-year high of $19.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46.

Orion (NYSE:OEC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $466.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $475.77 million. Orion had a return on equity of 16.67% and a net margin of 0.82%.Orion’s quarterly revenue was down 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.41 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Orion S.A. will post 1.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Orion Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a interim dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be issued a $0.0207 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th. This represents a dividend yield of 80.0%. Orion’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.63%.

Orion Company 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.