Orion (NYSE:OEC) Announces Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.11 EPS

Orion (NYSE:OEC) released its earnings results on Thursday. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by ($0.11), Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $502.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $506.38 million. Orion had a net margin of 4.64% and a return on equity of 21.25%. Orion’s revenue for the quarter was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.74 earnings per share.

Orion Trading Down 2.6 %

Shares of OEC opened at $23.60 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Orion has a 12 month low of $19.32 and a 12 month high of $28.48. The stock has a market cap of $1.38 billion, a PE ratio of 15.95 and a beta of 1.62. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $23.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.48.

Orion Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 11th will be given a $0.021 dividend. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 11th. Orion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.41%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on OEC. Mizuho upped their price objective on Orion from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group dropped their price target on Orion from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Orion from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Orion presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $28.00.

About Orion

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.