Short Interest in Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI) Increases By 25.1%

Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,190,000 shares, a growth of 25.1% from the May 31st total of 4,150,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,480,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.5 days. Approximately 2.3% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Element Solutions

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Mariner LLC lifted its position in Element Solutions by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 49,332 shares of the company’s stock worth $967,000 after buying an additional 2,682 shares during the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Element Solutions by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 104,850 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,056,000 after acquiring an additional 3,315 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,730,459 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,934,000 after purchasing an additional 45,752 shares in the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP bought a new position in shares of Element Solutions during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,569,000. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its position in Element Solutions by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 98,021 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,922,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. 92.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ESI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Mizuho raised their target price on Element Solutions from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Element Solutions from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Element Solutions from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $30.00 price objective (up from $28.00) on shares of Element Solutions in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $29.40.

Element Solutions Price Performance

NYSE:ESI traded up $0.24 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $27.08. 906,898 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,406,764. Element Solutions has a 12-month low of $17.57 and a 12-month high of $27.86. The company has a quick ratio of 2.69, a current ratio of 3.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82. The company has a market cap of $6.55 billion, a PE ratio of 49.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.30. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $24.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $23.91.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.02. Element Solutions had a net margin of 5.62% and a return on equity of 13.96%. The firm had revenue of $575.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $588.17 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.30 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Element Solutions will post 1.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Element Solutions Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 31st were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 31st. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.18%. Element Solutions’s payout ratio is currently 59.26%.

About Element Solutions

Element Solutions Inc operates as a specialty chemicals company in the United States, China, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Electronics, and Industrial & Specialty. The Electronics segment researches, formulates, and sells specialty chemicals and materials for various types of electronics hardware products.