Clark Capital Management Group Inc. Buys 243,495 Shares of Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

Clark Capital Management Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) by 148.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 407,426 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 243,495 shares during the quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc.’s holdings in Element Solutions were worth $10,255,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,256,926 shares of the company’s stock valued at $207,822,000 after purchasing an additional 139,751 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Element Solutions by 68.6% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,922,726 shares of the company’s stock worth $123,905,000 after buying an additional 2,003,724 shares during the last quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC raised its stake in Element Solutions by 9.6% during the third quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC now owns 4,722,464 shares of the company’s stock worth $118,864,000 after buying an additional 413,834 shares during the last quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP lifted its holdings in Element Solutions by 61.7% in the second quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP now owns 4,656,299 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,465,000 after buying an additional 1,777,265 shares during the period. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its position in Element Solutions by 3.0% during the third quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 4,426,445 shares of the company’s stock valued at $111,414,000 after acquiring an additional 129,590 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director E Stanley Oneal sold 143,564 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The stock was 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 directly owned 147,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,250,992.64. This represents a 49.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 6.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ESI. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target on shares of Element Solutions in a report 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. UBS Group raised their target price on Element Solutions from $34.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Mizuho lifted their target price on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on Element Solutions from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $35.75.

Element Solutions Stock Up 3.1%

Element Solutions stock opened at $31.01 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $31.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $27.74. Element Solutions Inc. has a 1-year low of $16.77 and a 1-year high of $37.74. The company has a current ratio of 3.68, a quick ratio of 3.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last posted its 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $632.40 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.35 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Dividend Announcement

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

Element Solutions Company Profile

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.