Orion (NYSE:OEC) Research Coverage Started at Mizuho

Mizuho started coverage on shares of Orion (NYSE:OEC) in a research note released on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. The firm issued a neutral rating and a $25.00 price target on the specialty chemicals company’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. UBS Group dropped their price target on Orion from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. StockNews.com lowered Orion from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, March 15th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $27.80.

Orion Stock Performance

Shares of Orion stock opened at $23.52 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. Orion has a 52 week low of $19.32 and a 52 week high of $28.48. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $22.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $22.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.60 and a beta of 1.63.

Orion (NYSE:OEC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by ($0.21). The company had revenue of $468.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $421.62 million. Orion had a net margin of 5.46% and a return on equity of 24.45%. Orion’s revenue was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.26 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Orion will post 2.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Orion Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th will be given a $0.021 dividend. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 12th. Orion’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.62%.

Institutional Trading of Orion

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Orion by 5.5% in the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 3,284,823 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $69,901,000 after acquiring an additional 171,834 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Orion by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,729,990 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $47,973,000 after buying an additional 111,363 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Orion by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,729,261 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $47,954,000 after acquiring an additional 76,480 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Orion by 20.3% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,389,560 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $38,533,000 after purchasing an additional 234,153 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Orion by 22.2% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,291,485 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $27,483,000 after buying an additional 234,888 shares in the last quarter. 94.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Orion

Orion SA, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of carbon black products. It operates in two segments, Specialty Carbon Black and Rubber Carbon Black. The company offers post-treated specialty carbon black grades for coatings and printing applications; high purity carbon black grades for the fiber industry; and conductive carbon black grades for batteries, polymers, and coatings.