Bank of America Upgrades Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) to “Buy”

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a $109.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $115.00. Bank of America‘s target price would suggest a potential upside of 22.38% from the stock’s current price.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Eastman Chemical from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $110.00 to $125.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $105.00 price target on shares of Eastman Chemical in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com cut Eastman Chemical from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Mizuho boosted their target price on Eastman Chemical from $113.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price target on Eastman Chemical from $105.00 to $102.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.92.

Eastman Chemical Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE:EMN opened at $89.07 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $97.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $100.44. Eastman Chemical has a one year low of $80.71 and a one year high of $114.50. 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 capitalization of $10.32 billion, a PE ratio of 11.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.44.

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 the consensus estimate of $2.14 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $2.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.38 billion. Eastman Chemical had a return on equity of 15.37% and a net margin of 9.47%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.47 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Eastman Chemical will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Stephen Glenn Crawford sold 10,504 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.00, for a total transaction of $1,102,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 47,287 shares in the company, valued at $4,965,135. This represents a 18.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Julie A. Mcalindon sold 4,456 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.84, for a total transaction of $471,623.04. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,403 shares in the company, valued at approximately $466,013.52. The trade was a 50.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 18,021 shares of company stock worth $1,895,948 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Eastman Chemical

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 2,343 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $262,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 3.8% during the third quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 2,683 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $300,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 3.3% during the third quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. now owns 3,434 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $384,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. RKL Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 0.9% in the third quarter. RKL Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,576 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,520,000 after buying an additional 123 shares during the period. Finally, Greenleaf Trust boosted its position in Eastman Chemical by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 6,645 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $744,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

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.