Steph & Co. Has $215,000 Holdings in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

Steph & Co. increased its stake in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) by 35.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,393 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 628 shares during the period. Steph & Co.’s holdings in Eastman Chemical were worth $215,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Eastman Chemical by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,978,856 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $305,258,000 after purchasing an additional 39,860 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Eastman Chemical by 37.4% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,795,824 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $214,496,000 after purchasing an additional 760,974 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Eastman Chemical by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,463,133 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $207,261,000 after purchasing an additional 17,555 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in Eastman Chemical by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,407,774 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $184,724,000 after purchasing an additional 51,788 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 18.7% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,885,179 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $158,996,000 after buying an additional 296,610 shares during the last quarter. 83.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

EMN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $89.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $101.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $95.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $102.00 to $101.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $97.13.

Insider Buying and Selling at Eastman Chemical

In other 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 transaction of $415,496.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.28% of the company’s stock.

Eastman Chemical Stock Performance

NYSE EMN traded down $0.43 on Wednesday, reaching $95.97. The stock had a trading volume of 706,057 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,102,593. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 0.70. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $91.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $85.33. Eastman Chemical has a 1-year low of $68.89 and a 1-year high of $102.71. The company has a market cap of $11.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.54.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The basic materials company reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.03. Eastman Chemical had a return on equity of 14.15% and a net margin of 9.71%. The firm had revenue of $2.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.21 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.89 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Eastman Chemical will post 7.7 EPS for the current year.

Eastman Chemical Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.81 dividend. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio is 43.26%.

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.