Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) Shares Bought by Geode Capital Management LLC

Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,832,593 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 48,491 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC owned about 2.44% of Eastman Chemical worth $257,986,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Tradewinds LLC. purchased a new stake in Eastman Chemical during the fourth quarter worth about $240,000. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Eastman Chemical by 10.8% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,785,259 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $528,310,000 after acquiring an additional 565,821 shares during the period. Summit Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Eastman Chemical during the 4th quarter worth approximately $227,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Eastman Chemical by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 159,846 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $14,597,000 after acquiring an additional 4,350 shares during the period. Finally, AIA Group Ltd purchased a new position in Eastman Chemical in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,461,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. 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. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Eastman Chemical from $121.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Eastman Chemical from $110.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Eastman Chemical from $124.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $105.00 to $101.00 in a research note on Friday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.83.

Eastman Chemical Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:EMN opened at $75.48 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $94.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $98.72. Eastman Chemical has a 52 week low of $73.78 and a 52 week high of $114.50. The company has a market cap of $8.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.27. Eastman Chemical had a return on equity of 16.27% and a net margin of 9.65%. Equities research analysts forecast that Eastman Chemical will post 8.55 EPS for the current year.

Eastman Chemical Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.40%. Eastman Chemical’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.