Nordea Investment Management AB Lowers Stake in Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

Nordea Investment Management AB cut its position in shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) by 4.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,667 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 243 shares during the quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB’s holdings in Eastman Chemical were worth $519,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Everence Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Eastman Chemical during the fourth quarter worth about $259,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Eastman Chemical by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,198 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $383,000 after acquiring an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Eastman Chemical by 32.4% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 916 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $84,000 after acquiring an additional 224 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Eastman Chemical by 6.8% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 148,176 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $16,588,000 after acquiring an additional 9,447 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IMS Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Eastman Chemical in the third quarter worth approximately $280,000. 83.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Eastman Chemical Trading Down 1.1 %

NYSE EMN opened at $87.25 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $97.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $100.44. Eastman Chemical has a 52 week low of $80.71 and a 52 week high of $114.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market cap of $10.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.68, a PEG ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.44.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $2.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $2.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.38 billion. Eastman Chemical had a net margin of 9.47% and a return on equity of 15.37%. The business’s revenue was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.47 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Eastman Chemical will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eastman Chemical Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This is a positive change from Eastman Chemical’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.81. Eastman Chemical’s payout ratio is 44.44%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Eastman Chemical news, SVP Christopher Moore Killian sold 3,061 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.00, for a total transaction of $321,405.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,366 shares in the company, valued at $1,298,430. The trade was a 19.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Stephen Glenn Crawford sold 10,504 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.00, for a total transaction of $1,102,920.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 47,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,965,135. The trade was a 18.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 18,021 shares of company stock worth $1,895,948. Insiders own 1.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on EMN. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Eastman Chemical from $105.00 to $102.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on shares of Eastman Chemical from $115.00 to $110.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Eastman Chemical from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $110.00 to $125.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. StockNews.com cut shares of Eastman Chemical from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of Eastman Chemical from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $118.00 to $104.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.69.

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.