Versor Investments LP Makes New $612,000 Investment in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

Versor Investments LP bought a new position in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 6,700 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $612,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 1.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,285,230 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $595,820,000 after acquiring an additional 70,692 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 5.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,219,438 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $593,233,000 after acquiring an additional 282,458 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 0.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,784,102 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $310,628,000 after acquiring an additional 13,381 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 3.2% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,734,190 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $306,093,000 after acquiring an additional 83,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,265,393 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $115,556,000 after acquiring an additional 51,367 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Eastman Chemical Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:EMN opened at $97.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 1.51. The company has a market cap of $11.26 billion, a PE ratio of 12.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.44. Eastman Chemical has a 52 week low of $86.59 and a 52 week high of $114.50. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $94.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $100.29.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.27. Eastman Chemical had a net margin of 9.65% and a return on equity of 16.27%. As a group, research analysts expect that Eastman Chemical will post 8.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastman Chemical Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.39%. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.23%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Eastman Chemical from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $110.00 to $125.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $102.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Eastman Chemical from $124.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup cut shares of Eastman Chemical from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $118.00 to $104.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $115.00 to $109.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Eastman Chemical currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $114.08.

About Eastman Chemical

Eastman Chemical Company operates as a specialty materials company in the United States, China, and internationally. The company's Additives & Functional Products segment offers amine derivative-based building blocks, intermediates for surfactants, metam-based soil fumigants, and organic acid-based solutions; specialty coalescent and solvents, paint additives, and specialty polymers; and heat transfer and aviation fluids.