Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Buys New Position in Orion S.A. (NYSE:OEC)

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Orion S.A. (NYSE:OEC - Free Report) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 39,641 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock, valued at approximately $706,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd owned approximately 0.07% of Orion at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in OEC. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Orion by 13.4% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 15,831 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $373,000 after purchasing an additional 1,875 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its stake in Orion by 207.0% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,094 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 1,412 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in Orion by 441.1% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 59,390 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $1,303,000 after buying an additional 48,415 shares in the last quarter. Summit Global Investments grew its position in Orion by 1.9% in the second quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 48,291 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $1,060,000 after acquiring an additional 891 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SummerHaven Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Orion by 1.9% during the second quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC now owns 34,371 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $754,000 after acquiring an additional 625 shares in the last quarter. 94.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Orion from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price target for the company from $20.00 to $21.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Orion from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th.

Orion Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of OEC stock traded down $0.06 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $17.38. 557,242 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 450,584. The company has a market cap of $1.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.81 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $17.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $19.17. Orion S.A. has a 1-year low of $14.94 and a 1-year high of $28.48.

Orion (NYSE:OEC - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.06). Orion had a return on equity of 18.97% and a net margin of 1.67%. The business had revenue of $463.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $489.01 million. On average, research analysts anticipate that Orion S.A. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Orion Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $0.021 dividend. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. This is an increase from Orion's previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Orion's dividend payout ratio is presently 15.09%.

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.