J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Invests $209,000 in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 2,330 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Tucker Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Eastman Chemical by 19.5% in the third quarter. Tucker Asset Management LLC now owns 870 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its stake in Eastman Chemical by 26.2% in the third quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 814 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $62,000 after buying an additional 169 shares during the last quarter. Steph & Co. raised its stake in Eastman Chemical by 12.8% in the third quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 1,765 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $135,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 16.7% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,434 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $129,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the period. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 7,530 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $650,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the period. 83.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Eastman Chemical from $101.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Eastman Chemical from $95.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Eastman Chemical from $89.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Eastman Chemical from $89.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on Eastman Chemical from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.81.

Eastman Chemical Price Performance

EMN stock opened at $96.12 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The company has a market capitalization of $11.30 billion, a PE ratio of 12.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.54. Eastman Chemical has a 12-month low of $68.89 and a 12-month high of $102.71. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $93.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $86.16.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The basic materials company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.03. Eastman Chemical had a return on equity of 14.15% and a net margin of 9.71%. The company had revenue of $2.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.21 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.89 EPS. Eastman Chemical’s revenue was down 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Eastman Chemical will post 7.71 EPS for the current year.

Eastman Chemical Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.81 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.37%. Eastman Chemical’s payout ratio is currently 43.26%.

Insider Activity at Eastman Chemical

In related news, SVP Adrian James Holt sold 4,735 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.93% of the company’s stock.

Eastman Chemical Company Profile

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.