Norges Bank Buys Shares of 1,504,770 Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,504,770 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $137,416,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Townsquare Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Eastman Chemical during the 3rd quarter worth $236,000. CreativeOne Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Eastman Chemical during the 3rd quarter valued at about $219,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in Eastman Chemical by 3.2% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 62,587 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $7,007,000 after acquiring an additional 1,940 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 11.2% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 4,951 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $554,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors grew its position in shares of Eastman Chemical by 3.8% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 24,701 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,765,000 after purchasing an additional 903 shares during the last quarter. 83.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on EMN. Barclays lowered their target price on Eastman Chemical from $111.00 to $108.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $102.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $101.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Eastman Chemical from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 18th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on Eastman Chemical from $121.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.08.

Eastman Chemical Stock Performance

Eastman Chemical stock opened at $88.14 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $10.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.43. Eastman Chemical has a 12 month low of $85.84 and a 12 month high of $114.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.51 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $95.56 and its 200-day moving average is $99.29.

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%. Equities analysts anticipate that Eastman Chemical will post 8.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastman Chemical Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.77%. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.23%.

Eastman Chemical 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.