Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI) saw a significant decline in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,650,000 shares, a decline of 9.8% from the September 30th total of 1,830,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,280,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.3 days. Approximately 0.7% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ESI. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Element Solutions from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Element Solutions from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Element Solutions from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Element Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $29.80.

Institutional Trading of Element Solutions

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Quarry LP bought a new position in Element Solutions in the second quarter valued at $31,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Element Solutions by 39.4% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,056 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,000 after buying an additional 864 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC raised its stake in Element Solutions by 14,600.0% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 3,234 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,000 after acquiring an additional 3,212 shares during the period. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Element Solutions during the 1st quarter valued at $78,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC boosted its position in Element Solutions by 13.8% during the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 3,683 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,000 after purchasing an additional 448 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Element Solutions Stock Up 0.4 %

ESI stock traded up $0.12 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $27.81. 216,203 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,378,093. Element Solutions has a 1-year low of $17.76 and a 1-year high of $28.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 3.50. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $25.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.57. The firm has a market cap of $6.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.29.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $645.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $626.52 million. Element Solutions had a return on equity of 14.42% and a net margin of 8.24%. Element Solutions’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.36 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Element Solutions will post 1.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.15%. Element Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.26%.

About Element Solutions

Element Solutions Inc operates as a specialty chemicals company in the United States, China, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Electronics, and Industrial & Specialty. The Electronics segment researches, formulates, and sells specialty chemicals and materials for various types of electronics hardware products.