CWA Asset Management Group LLC Grows Holdings in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) by 32.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,614 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 1,630 shares during the quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC’s holdings in Eastman Chemical were worth $604,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in EMN. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Eastman Chemical by 1,104.3% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 933,984 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $104,560,000 after purchasing an additional 856,432 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its stake in Eastman Chemical by 201.5% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 924,490 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $90,572,000 after purchasing an additional 617,889 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in Eastman Chemical by 57.2% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 935,732 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $104,755,000 after buying an additional 340,562 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in Eastman Chemical by 5.7% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,219,438 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $593,233,000 after buying an additional 282,458 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Eastman Chemical by 34.5% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 852,551 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $83,524,000 after buying an additional 218,531 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Eastman Chemical news, SVP Julie A. Mcalindon sold 4,456 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.84, for a total transaction of $471,623.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $466,013.52. This trade represents a 50.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Christopher Moore Killian sold 3,061 shares of Eastman Chemical stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.00, for a total value of $321,405.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 12,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,298,430. This trade represents a 19.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 18,021 shares of company stock worth $1,895,948 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.27% of the company’s stock.

Eastman Chemical Stock Down 0.4 %

EMN opened at $88.09 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $98.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $100.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The stock has a market cap of $10.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.79, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.44. Eastman Chemical has a 12 month low of $80.71 and a 12 month high of $114.50.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $2.26 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $2.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.38 billion. Eastman Chemical had a return on equity of 15.37% and a net margin of 9.47%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.47 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Eastman Chemical will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastman Chemical Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.83 dividend. This is a positive change from Eastman Chemical’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.81. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.77%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.44%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EMN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Mizuho boosted their price target on Eastman Chemical from $113.00 to $117.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Bank of America cut shares of Eastman Chemical from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $114.00 to $119.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Eastman Chemical from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Eastman Chemical from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $110.00 to $125.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded Eastman Chemical from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $118.00 to $104.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Eastman Chemical has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.69.

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.