Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) PT Raised to $100.00

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) had its price target lifted by Royal Bank of Canada from $89.00 to $100.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a sector perform rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on EMN. UBS Group upped their price objective on Eastman Chemical from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Eastman Chemical from $89.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Redburn Atlantic assumed coverage on Eastman Chemical in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. They set a buy rating and a $110.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Eastman Chemical from $102.00 to $101.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on Eastman Chemical from $101.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $97.81.

Eastman Chemical Price Performance

Shares of EMN opened at $96.42 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $11.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.87, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.54. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $92.72 and a 200-day moving average of $85.62. 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 has a 52 week low of $68.89 and a 52 week high of $102.71.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.21 billion. Eastman Chemical had a return on equity of 14.15% and a net margin of 9.71%. The firm’s revenue was down 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.89 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Eastman Chemical will post 7.7 EPS for the current year.

Eastman Chemical Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.81 per share. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio is 43.26%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Adrian James Holt sold 4,735 shares of the company’s 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.93% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Eastman Chemical

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Eastman Chemical by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,839,723 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,332,904,000 after buying an additional 61,580 shares during the period. Putnam Investments LLC raised its position in Eastman Chemical by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 4,355,408 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $391,203,000 after buying an additional 168,038 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley raised its position in Eastman Chemical by 1.0% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,978,856 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $305,258,000 after buying an additional 39,860 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Eastman Chemical by 37.4% during 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 period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in Eastman Chemical by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,575,783 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $231,357,000 after buying an additional 168,009 shares during the period. 83.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.