Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) Shares Sold by Valley National Advisers Inc.

Valley National Advisers Inc. reduced its holdings in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) by 6.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 25,776 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,749 shares during the quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Eastman Chemical were worth $2,582,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in Eastman Chemical by 15.6% during the third quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 116,152 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,911,000 after purchasing an additional 15,651 shares during the last quarter. Mariner LLC raised its holdings in Eastman Chemical by 5.3% during the third quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 19,347 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,484,000 after purchasing an additional 970 shares during the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its holdings in Eastman Chemical by 0.5% during the third quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 52,081 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,996,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its holdings in Eastman Chemical by 206.7% during the third quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 31,662 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,429,000 after purchasing an additional 21,337 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd raised its holdings in Eastman Chemical by 169.1% during the third quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 21,523 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,651,000 after purchasing an additional 13,524 shares during the last quarter. 83.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Eastman Chemical Trading Up 0.5 %

Eastman Chemical stock traded up $0.52 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $95.87. The stock had a trading volume of 381,046 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,003,023. Eastman Chemical has a twelve month low of $68.89 and a twelve month high of $105.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.28 billion, a PE ratio of 12.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 1.39. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $99.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $93.42.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The basic materials company reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.20. Eastman Chemical had a return on equity of 13.84% and a net margin of 10.16%. The firm had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.29 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.63 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Eastman Chemical will post 7.69 EPS for the current year.

Eastman Chemical Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 9th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.81 per share. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 17th. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.75%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Eastman Chemical news, CEO Mark J. Costa sold 102,390 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.78, for a total transaction of $10,318,864.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 395,699 shares in the company, valued at $39,878,545.22. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Eastman Chemical news, CEO Mark J. Costa sold 102,390 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.78, for a total transaction of $10,318,864.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 395,699 shares in the company, valued at $39,878,545.22. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Adrian James Holt sold 1,975 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.22, for a total value of $195,959.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 108,027 shares of company stock worth $10,885,638 over the last quarter. 2.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on EMN. UBS Group raised Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $106.00 to $128.00 in a report on Thursday, May 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded Eastman Chemical from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Eastman Chemical from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $102.00 to $125.00 in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Eastman Chemical from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Eastman Chemical from $114.00 to $111.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $107.31.

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.