Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC Purchases Shares of 18,472 Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 18,472 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $465,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Scopus Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 134.6% in the second quarter. Scopus Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,426,156 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,602,000 after purchasing an additional 1,965,691 shares during the last quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP lifted its stake in Element Solutions by 61.7% in the second quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP now owns 4,656,299 shares of the company’s stock worth $105,465,000 after acquiring an additional 1,777,265 shares during the period. Merewether Investment Management LP bought a new stake in Element Solutions in the second quarter valued at $28,031,000. SG Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Element Solutions during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,257,000. Finally, Albar Capital Partners LLP bought a new position in Element Solutions in the 2nd quarter worth $23,845,000. 92.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Element Solutions news, Director Ian G. H. Ashken sold 292,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.00, for a total transaction of $7,884,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 306,880 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,285,760. This trade represents a 48.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Matthew Liebowitz sold 37,000 shares of Element Solutions stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.60, for a total transaction of $984,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 117,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,122,653.80. This trade represents a 23.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 6.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ESI. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Element Solutions from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded Element Solutions from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 15th. Bank of America raised their target price on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.75.

Element Solutions Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ESI opened at $28.04 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $25.42. Element Solutions Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $16.77 and a fifty-two week high of $28.13. The company has a market capitalization of $6.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.28. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.02. Element Solutions had a return on equity of 14.01% and a net margin of 9.58%.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 business posted $0.39 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 1st were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 1st. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Element Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.32%.

Element Solutions Profile

Element Solutions Inc is a global specialty chemicals company that develops and supplies highly engineered chemistries to performance-driven end markets. The company’s solutions serve customers across the electronics, energy, transportation, consumer and industrial sectors, with a particular emphasis on electronics chemicals, metal plating, and industrial coatings additives.

In the electronics market, Element Solutions provides a range of plating and surface-treatment chemistries used in the manufacture of printed circuit boards, semiconductor devices, and advanced display technologies.