Orion S.A. $OEC Shares Sold by Brown Advisory Inc.

Brown Advisory Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Orion S.A. (NYSE:OEC) by 6.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,471,143 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 167,177 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. owned approximately 4.40% of Orion worth $25,922,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in OEC. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Orion during the first quarter valued at about $59,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Orion in the 1st quarter valued at about $137,000. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Orion during the 1st quarter worth about $177,000. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey increased its position in Orion by 18.2% during the 2nd quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey now owns 13,687 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,112 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GWN Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Orion in the second quarter valued at approximately $148,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.33% of the company’s stock.

Orion Price Performance

OEC opened at $4.99 on Friday. Orion S.A. has a twelve month low of $4.34 and a twelve month high of $19.24. The firm has a market cap of $279.91 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.59 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $5.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.72.

Orion (NYSE:OEC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.07). Orion had a negative net margin of 1.74% and a positive return on equity of 14.90%. The firm had revenue of $450.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $453.45 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.47 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Orion S.A. will post 1.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Orion Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a interim dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be given a $0.0207 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 80.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th. Orion’s dividend payout ratio is presently -13.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on OEC shares. Mizuho set a $6.00 price objective on shares of Orion in a research note on Monday, October 20th. UBS Group lowered shares of Orion from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $12.00 to $7.00 in a report on Friday, October 17th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Orion in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research raised Orion from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Orion from $9.00 to $5.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Orion has a consensus rating of “Strong Sell” and an average target price of $6.00.

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.