DnB Asset Management AS Grows Position in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

DnB Asset Management AS grew its stake in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 23,637 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 767 shares during the period. DnB Asset Management AS’s holdings in Eastman Chemical were worth $2,159,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in EMN. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its holdings in Eastman Chemical by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 62,978 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,751,000 after purchasing an additional 2,807 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Eastman Chemical by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 60,082 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,487,000 after buying an additional 436 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Eastman Chemical during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $137,416,000. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd boosted its position in Eastman Chemical by 24.9% during the fourth quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 20,092 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,835,000 after acquiring an additional 4,006 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co grew its stake in Eastman Chemical by 28.9% in the 4th quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 13,464 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,230,000 after acquiring an additional 3,018 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Eastman Chemical from $110.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group lowered their price target on Eastman Chemical from $124.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $121.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup lowered shares of Eastman Chemical from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $118.00 to $104.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Eastman Chemical from $101.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $114.08.

Eastman Chemical Stock Performance

NYSE:EMN opened at $88.12 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $95.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $99.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. Eastman Chemical has a twelve month low of $85.84 and a twelve month high of $114.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.47, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.43.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.27. Eastman Chemical had a return on equity of 16.27% and a net margin of 9.65%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Eastman Chemical will post 8.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Eastman Chemical Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.