K2 Principal Fund L.P. Takes Position in Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

K2 Principal Fund L.P. purchased a new position in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 30,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,446,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 2,524,090 shares of the company’s stock worth $63,077,000 after acquiring an additional 174,228 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 45.2% during the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 189,883 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,767,000 after acquiring an additional 59,154 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Element Solutions by 36.7% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,977,958 shares of the company’s stock worth $101,667,000 after purchasing an additional 798,923 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in shares of Element Solutions by 2,818.0% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 68,543 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,340,000 after purchasing an additional 66,194 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Element Solutions by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,405,232 shares of the company’s stock worth $85,097,000 after purchasing an additional 123,244 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Element Solutions Stock Down 4.8%

ESI opened at $37.32 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.09 billion, a PE ratio of 50.43, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a current ratio of 2.91, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $38.03. Element Solutions Inc. has a 1-year low of $22.86 and a 1-year high of $49.25.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.04. Element Solutions had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 14.88%. The company had revenue of $977.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $873.19 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.20 EPS. Element Solutions’s revenue for the quarter was up 56.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.81 EPS for the current year.

Element Solutions Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 1st. Element Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.24%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on ESI shares. Wolfe Research set a $47.00 price objective on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Seaport Research Partners reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $49.00 target price on shares of Element Solutions in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Element Solutions in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Element Solutions in a report on Friday. Finally, Mizuho reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective (down from $54.00) on shares of Element Solutions in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.50.

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.