Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) Raised to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) was upgraded by Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Saturday.

ESI has been the topic of several other research reports. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Element Solutions from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group lifted their price target on Element Solutions from $34.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Element Solutions in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on Element Solutions from $33.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $34.50.

Element Solutions Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE:ESI opened at $35.45 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $28.63 and its two-hundred day moving average is $26.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 3.28 and a current ratio of 3.68. Element Solutions has a 1-year low of $16.77 and a 1-year high of $36.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.28.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $676.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $632.40 million. Element Solutions had a return on equity of 13.79% and a net margin of 7.48%.The business’s revenue was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.35 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Element Solutions will post 1.45 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Element Solutions

In related news, insider Matthew Liebowitz sold 37,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.60, for a total transaction of $984,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 117,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,122,653.80. This represents a 23.96% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 6.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ESI. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 43.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,069,238 shares of the company’s stock valued at $176,660,000 after purchasing an additional 2,146,512 shares during the period. Scopus Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in Element Solutions by 134.6% in the 2nd quarter. Scopus Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,426,156 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,602,000 after buying an additional 1,965,691 shares in the last quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP boosted its stake in Element Solutions by 61.7% in the 2nd quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP now owns 4,656,299 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,465,000 after buying an additional 1,777,265 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in Element Solutions by 253.4% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 2,349,862 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,146,000 after acquiring an additional 1,684,994 shares during the period. Finally, Jain Global LLC raised its stake in Element Solutions by 253.3% during the fourth quarter. Jain Global LLC now owns 2,127,297 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,161,000 after acquiring an additional 1,525,195 shares in the last quarter. 92.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Element Solutions

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.