Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Makes New $719,000 Investment in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 7,170 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $719,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Eastman Chemical during the 4th quarter valued at about $121,847,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 37.4% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,795,824 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $214,496,000 after buying an additional 760,974 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors acquired a new stake in shares of Eastman Chemical during the 4th quarter valued at about $54,047,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 274.5% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 249,104 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $22,375,000 after buying an additional 391,848 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Eastman Chemical by 1,031.0% in the 3rd quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 333,655 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,598,000 after purchasing an additional 304,155 shares during the last quarter. 83.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Eastman Chemical Stock Performance

Shares of EMN traded down $0.55 on Wednesday, reaching $99.40. 522,688 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,032,773. The firm has a market cap of $11.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 0.71. Eastman Chemical has a 12 month low of $68.89 and a 12 month high of $102.71. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $98.07 and its 200-day moving average price is $89.78.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The basic materials company reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.29 billion. Eastman Chemical had a return on equity of 13.84% and a net margin of 10.16%. Eastman Chemical’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.63 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Eastman Chemical will post 7.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eastman Chemical Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 9th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 17th will be given a $0.81 dividend. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.26%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 17th. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Eastman Chemical

In other Eastman Chemical news, SVP Adrian James Holt sold 4,735 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.75, for a total value of $415,496.25. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Eastman Chemical news, SVP Adrian James Holt sold 4,735 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.75, for a total value of $415,496.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark J. Costa sold 102,390 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.78, for a total value of $10,318,864.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 395,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,878,545.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 110,787 shares of company stock worth $11,105,175 over the last three months. Company insiders own 2.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on EMN. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Eastman Chemical from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Eastman Chemical from $89.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Mizuho boosted their target price on Eastman Chemical from $91.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Eastman Chemical from $101.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Eastman Chemical from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $104.18.

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.