Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 1,375 Shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its stake in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) by 0.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 146,801 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,375 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.13% of Eastman Chemical worth $13,406,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp grew its position in Eastman Chemical by 1.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,285,230 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $595,820,000 after acquiring an additional 70,692 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Eastman Chemical by 5.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,219,438 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $593,233,000 after acquiring an additional 282,458 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Eastman Chemical by 0.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,784,102 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $310,628,000 after acquiring an additional 13,381 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in Eastman Chemical by 3.2% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,734,190 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $306,093,000 after acquiring an additional 83,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in Eastman Chemical by 15.4% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 947,473 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $106,070,000 after acquiring an additional 126,301 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on EMN. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Eastman Chemical from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $110.00 to $125.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Eastman Chemical from $124.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Eastman Chemical from $110.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Bank of America upgraded Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $115.00 to $109.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on Eastman Chemical from $121.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Eastman Chemical has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.08.

Eastman Chemical Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE EMN opened at $98.08 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 1.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.77, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.44. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $94.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $100.32. Eastman Chemical has a 52-week low of $85.28 and a 52-week high of $114.50.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. Sell-side analysts expect that Eastman Chemical will post 8.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastman Chemical Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.39%. The ex-dividend date 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.