Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI)

Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lessened its holdings in Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI - Free Report) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,004,392 shares of the company's stock after selling 87,613 shares during the quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC owned 2.07% of Element Solutions worth $127,262,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ESI. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 33,140 shares of the company's stock valued at $843,000 after buying an additional 3,271 shares during the last quarter. Homestead Advisers Corp bought a new position in Element Solutions during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,790,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Element Solutions by 80.4% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,921,021 shares of the company's stock worth $74,282,000 after acquiring an additional 1,301,602 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. purchased a new position in Element Solutions in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,135,000. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new stake in Element Solutions in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $227,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.32% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Martin E. Franklin sold 2,000,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.10, for a total transaction of $52,200,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 109,100 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,847,510. The trade was a 94.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 7.90% of the company's stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ESI. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Element Solutions from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Bank of America reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $28.00 price objective (down from $32.00) on shares of Element Solutions in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Truist Financial initiated coverage on Element Solutions in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. They set a "hold" rating and a $28.00 price target for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Element Solutions presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $30.14.

Element Solutions Stock Down 1.3 %

ESI traded down $0.31 on Monday, hitting $22.61. The company had a trading volume of 3,223,459 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,698,011. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $25.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 3.34 and a quick ratio of 2.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.29. Element Solutions Inc has a 52-week low of $22.38 and a 52-week high of $29.78.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.35. Element Solutions had a return on equity of 14.68% and a net margin of 9.94%. The firm had revenue of $624.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $598.24 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that Element Solutions Inc will post 1.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Element Solutions's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.37%.

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.