Ecovyst (NYSE:ECVT) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ecovyst (NYSE:ECVT) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report released on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

ECVT has been the topic of a number of other reports. BWS Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $16.00 price objective on shares of Ecovyst in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Freedom Capital raised shares of Ecovyst to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and set a $14.00 target price on shares of Ecovyst in a research report on Tuesday, September 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Ecovyst in a report on Thursday, August 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $14.62.

Ecovyst Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ECVT opened at $9.84 on Friday. Ecovyst has a twelve month low of $7.41 and a twelve month high of $15.09. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.78. The company has a market capitalization of $1.08 billion, a PE ratio of -18.57, a P/E/G ratio of 0.43 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.44, a current ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84.

Ecovyst (NYSE:ECVT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $249.96 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $237.54 million. Ecovyst had a positive return on equity of 13.83% and a negative net margin of 7.05%. The company’s revenue was up 24.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.12 earnings per share. Ecovyst has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.580-0.720 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ecovyst will post 0.60 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Ecovyst

In other news, Director Patti Humble bought 24,875 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 10th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $10.05 per share, for a total transaction of $249,993.75. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 33,974 shares in the company, valued at $341,438.70. This represents a 273.38% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 1.84% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ecovyst

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of ECVT. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ecovyst in the second quarter valued at approximately $132,792,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Ecovyst by 246.6% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,829,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,101,000 after buying an additional 3,435,942 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Ecovyst in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $10,712,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in Ecovyst in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $7,274,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in Ecovyst in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $7,163,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.69% of the company’s stock.

About Ecovyst

Ecovyst Inc (NYSE: ECVT) is a global provider of specialty catalysts and advanced materials used in industrial and environmental applications. The company develops, manufactures and supplies products that help customers improve process efficiency, increase yields and meet emissions and sustainability requirements.

Through its Catalysts Technologies business, Ecovyst provides catalysts and related services for petroleum refining, renewable fuels, petrochemicals and other chemical processes.