Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Sells 138 Shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund reduced its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 138 shares during the quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Eastman Chemical were worth $906,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of EMN. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Eastman Chemical in the third quarter worth about $5,163,000. New York State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 0.9% in the third quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 136,373 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $15,267,000 after purchasing an additional 1,254 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 10.5% in the third quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 7,043 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $788,000 after purchasing an additional 671 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 1.8% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 51,248 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,737,000 after purchasing an additional 895 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Shepherd Financial Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 4.3% in the third quarter. Shepherd Financial Partners LLC now owns 3,553 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $398,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. 83.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup cut Eastman Chemical from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $118.00 to $104.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. KeyCorp raised their target price on Eastman Chemical from $121.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $115.00 to $110.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Eastman Chemical from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $110.00 to $125.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $101.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Eastman Chemical has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.08.

Eastman Chemical Price Performance

EMN stock opened at $97.81 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $94.92 and a 200-day moving average price of $100.35. Eastman Chemical has a 52-week low of $86.59 and a 52-week high of $114.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.74, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 1.51.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.87 earnings per share (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%. Equities research analysts forecast that Eastman Chemical will post 8.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eastman Chemical Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.39%. Eastman Chemical’s payout ratio is currently 43.23%.

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.