Eastman Chemical to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.81 (NYSE:EMN)

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 17th will be paid a dividend of 0.81 per share by the basic materials company on Tuesday, July 9th. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.38%.

Eastman Chemical has increased its dividend by an average of 6.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 14 years. Eastman Chemical has a payout ratio of 36.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Eastman Chemical to earn $9.32 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.24 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 34.8%.

Eastman Chemical Stock Up 1.2 %

NYSE EMN traded up $1.16 on Thursday, hitting $95.92. 682,352 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,086,235. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $94.60 and a 200 day moving average of $86.94. Eastman Chemical has a twelve month low of $68.89 and a twelve month high of $102.71. The company has a market capitalization of $11.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The basic materials company reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 in the prior year, the firm posted $1.63 earnings per share. Eastman Chemical’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Eastman Chemical will post 7.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Eastman Chemical from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group raised Eastman Chemical from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $102.00 to $125.00 in a report on Monday. KeyCorp upped their target price on Eastman Chemical from $101.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Eastman Chemical from $89.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Eastman Chemical from $102.00 to $101.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 5th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $103.12.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Eastman Chemical news, SVP Adrian James Holt sold 4,735 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.93% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.