Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC Trims Holdings in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 65,672 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 863 shares during the quarter. Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Eastman Chemical were worth $5,895,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Burns J W & Co. Inc. NY bought a new position in Eastman Chemical during the fourth quarter worth $205,000. Cetera Trust Company N.A bought a new stake in Eastman Chemical in the fourth quarter valued at $812,000. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its stake in Eastman Chemical by 17.6% in the fourth quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 99,419 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,930,000 after buying an additional 14,898 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Eastman Chemical in the fourth quarter valued at $8,592,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Eastman Chemical by 37.4% in the third 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. 83.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Eastman Chemical Price Performance

NYSE:EMN traded down $0.57 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $95.56. 1,337,744 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 837,267. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $93.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $86.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.24 billion, a PE ratio of 12.31, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.54. Eastman Chemical has a 1-year low of $68.89 and a 1-year high of $102.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The basic materials company reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.29 billion. Eastman Chemical had a return on equity of 13.95% and a net margin of 10.16%. Eastman Chemical’s revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.63 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Eastman Chemical will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Eastman Chemical Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.81 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.39%. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.75%.

Insider Activity at Eastman Chemical

In related news, SVP Adrian James Holt sold 4,735 shares of the 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EMN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. KeyCorp raised their target price on Eastman Chemical from $101.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Eastman Chemical from $89.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. UBS Group raised their target price on Eastman Chemical from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Citigroup raised their price target on Eastman Chemical from $95.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Eastman Chemical from $102.00 to $101.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 5th. Seven research 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 company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $99.31.

Eastman Chemical 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.