Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI Takes $1.20 Million Position in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI purchased a new stake in shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 13,100 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,196,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Eastman Chemical by 13.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,886,564 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $537,561,000 after purchasing an additional 697,388 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of Eastman Chemical by 10.8% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,785,259 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $528,310,000 after buying an additional 565,821 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Eastman Chemical by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,844,165 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $259,729,000 after buying an additional 284,271 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Eastman Chemical by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,843,506 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $259,669,000 after buying an additional 109,316 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Eastman Chemical by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,832,593 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $257,986,000 after buying an additional 48,491 shares during the last quarter. 83.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EMN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Eastman Chemical from $108.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Eastman Chemical from $112.00 to $87.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. Mizuho raised shares of Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. StockNews.com cut Eastman Chemical from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Eastman Chemical from $125.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Eastman Chemical has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $99.15.

Eastman Chemical Trading Up 0.2%

NYSE:EMN opened at $82.31 on Wednesday. Eastman Chemical has a one year low of $70.90 and a one year high of $114.50. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $81.26 and a 200-day moving average price of $91.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.29. 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 (NYSE:EMN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The basic materials company reported $1.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.35 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.61 earnings per share. Eastman Chemical’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Eastman Chemical will post 8.55 EPS for the current year.

Eastman Chemical Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio is 42.24%.

Eastman Chemical 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.