First Trust Advisors LP Buys 820,465 Shares of Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) by 67.6% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,034,817 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 820,465 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Element Solutions were worth $51,216,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ESI. Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Element Solutions in the second quarter worth $26,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Element Solutions by 154.8% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,116 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 678 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in Element Solutions by 710.1% during the second quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,288 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 1,129 shares during the last quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Element Solutions in the third quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, SJS Investment Consulting Inc. raised its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 6,693.1% in the third quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 1,970 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 1,941 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Element Solutions

In other news, insider Matthew Liebowitz sold 37,000 shares of Element Solutions stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owned 117,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,122,653.80. The trade was a 23.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director E Stanley Oneal sold 143,564 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.52, for a total value of $5,099,393.28. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 147,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,250,992.64. The trade was a 49.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 6.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on ESI. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Element Solutions from $34.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. CJS Securities raised shares of Element Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $37.00 price objective on shares of Element Solutions in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded Element Solutions from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 21st. Finally, KeyCorp upped their target price on Element Solutions from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $35.75.

Element Solutions Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of ESI opened at $32.57 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $30.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $27.66. The company has a current ratio of 3.68, a quick ratio of 3.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.24. Element Solutions Inc. has a 12-month low of $16.77 and a 12-month high of $37.74.

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

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 2nd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Element Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.51%.

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.