Earnest Partners LLC Purchases 35,793 Shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

Earnest Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,277,827 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 35,793 shares during the quarter. Eastman Chemical comprises 0.9% of Earnest Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Earnest Partners LLC’s holdings in Eastman Chemical were worth $208,011,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Oxford Asset Management LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Eastman Chemical in the 4th quarter worth about $262,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Eastman Chemical by 68.5% in the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 556 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Eastman Chemical during the fourth quarter valued at about $3,334,000. Three Seasons Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Eastman Chemical during the fourth quarter worth about $464,000. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC grew its position in Eastman Chemical by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 7,539 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $688,000 after purchasing an additional 404 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on EMN shares. Bank of America raised Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $115.00 to $109.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Citigroup raised shares of Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $105.00 to $101.00 in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Eastman Chemical from $125.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Eastman Chemical from $110.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Mizuho raised Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Eastman Chemical presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $107.08.

Eastman Chemical Stock Down 6.2 %

Shares of EMN opened at $75.80 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $8.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.51 and a quick ratio of 0.78. Eastman Chemical has a 1 year low of $70.90 and a 1 year high of $114.50. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $87.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $94.99.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The basic materials company reported $1.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.02. Eastman Chemical had a return on equity of 16.27% and a net margin of 9.65%. The firm had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.35 billion. On average, analysts forecast that Eastman Chemical will post 8.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Eastman Chemical Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.23%.

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.