Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. Increases Position in Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI)

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI) by 107.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 105,745 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 54,686 shares during the quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Element Solutions were worth $2,872,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Element Solutions during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,518,000. Capital World Investors bought a new stake in shares of Element Solutions in the 1st quarter worth approximately $44,527,000. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Element Solutions during the 2nd quarter valued at $5,668,000. Blue Trust Inc. bought a new position in Element Solutions during the second quarter worth about $613,000. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Element Solutions by 16.9% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,061,060 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,485,000 after buying an additional 298,668 shares during the period. 92.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Element Solutions Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of ESI stock opened at $27.41 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 3.52 and a quick ratio of 2.60. The company has a market cap of $6.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.69, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.29. Element Solutions Inc has a 1-year low of $18.82 and a 1-year high of $28.68. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $25.66.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $645.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $626.52 million. Element Solutions had a net margin of 11.08% and a return on equity of 14.42%. Element Solutions’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.36 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Element Solutions Inc will post 1.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Investors of record on Friday, August 30th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 30th. Element Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.83%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ESI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Element Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. StockNews.com downgraded Element Solutions from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Wolfe Research raised shares of Element Solutions from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Element Solutions from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Element Solutions from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Two research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Element Solutions currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.00.

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.