American Century Companies Inc. Trims Stake in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

American Century Companies Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 61,964 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 821 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 0.05% of Eastman Chemical worth $5,659,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of EMN. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in Eastman Chemical in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $290,000. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its stake in Eastman Chemical by 62.9% during the 4th quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 1,212 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $111,000 after buying an additional 468 shares during the period. iA Global Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Eastman Chemical by 42.0% during the 4th quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,708 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $704,000 after buying an additional 2,279 shares in the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new position in Eastman Chemical in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $4,041,000. Finally, Xponance Inc. grew its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical by 11.3% in the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 18,092 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,652,000 after acquiring an additional 1,834 shares in the last quarter. 83.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on EMN. 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 research note on Monday, February 3rd. Bank of America upgraded Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $115.00 to $109.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Eastman Chemical from $111.00 to $108.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Mizuho raised shares of Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Eastman Chemical from $101.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Eastman Chemical has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.83.

Eastman Chemical Stock Down 5.6 %

Shares of NYSE:EMN opened at $75.48 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $94.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $98.77. Eastman Chemical has a twelve month low of $73.78 and a twelve month high of $114.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The company has a market capitalization of $8.69 billion, a PE ratio of 9.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.43.

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

Eastman Chemical Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.40%. 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.