Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Grows Position in Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN) by 58.7% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 31,868 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 11,787 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Eastman Chemical were worth $2,808,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of EMN. Picton Mahoney Asset Management boosted its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 62.3% during the 4th quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 323 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in shares of Eastman Chemical by 384.4% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 373 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Eastman Chemical during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Eastman Chemical during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, Orion Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Eastman Chemical during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $47,000. 83.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Eastman Chemical Trading Up 2.0%

Shares of EMN opened at $76.49 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $78.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $87.46. The company has a market cap of $8.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. Eastman Chemical Company has a twelve month low of $70.90 and a twelve month high of $114.50.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The basic materials company reported $1.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.02. Eastman Chemical had a net margin of 9.85% and a return on equity of 16.59%. The company had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.61 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Eastman Chemical Company will post 8.55 EPS for the current year.

Eastman Chemical Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.34%. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio is 42.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on EMN. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Eastman Chemical from $125.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Eastman Chemical from $112.00 to $87.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of Eastman Chemical from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $91.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $108.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, KeyCorp decreased their target price on shares of Eastman Chemical from $120.00 to $106.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.54.

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.