Traders Purchase Large Volume of Eastman Chemical Call Options (NYSE:EMN)

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock investors bought 3,004 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 674% compared to the typical volume of 388 call options.

Institutional Trading of Eastman Chemical

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. James J. Burns & Company LLC acquired a new stake in Eastman Chemical in the 4th quarter valued at about $741,000. Goelzer Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Eastman Chemical in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,319,000. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in Eastman Chemical by 492.9% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 213,161 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $23,863,000 after buying an additional 177,207 shares in the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management boosted its position in Eastman Chemical by 14.6% in the 4th quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 44,675 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,081,000 after buying an additional 5,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 3.2% in the 3rd 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 buying an additional 83,504 shares during the period. 83.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on EMN. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $113.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Eastman Chemical from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $110.00 to $125.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $115.00 to $109.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Eastman Chemical from $101.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on Eastman Chemical from $121.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $114.08.

Eastman Chemical Stock Performance

Eastman Chemical stock opened at $88.55 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.43. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $95.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $99.69. Eastman Chemical has a 52-week low of $86.70 and a 52-week high of $114.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.51 and a quick ratio of 0.78.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last announced its quarterly 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%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Eastman Chemical will post 8.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eastman Chemical Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.75%. Eastman Chemical’s payout ratio is 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.