14,074 Shares in Orion S.A. $OEC Purchased by GWN Securities Inc.

GWN Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Orion S.A. (NYSE:OEC) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 14,074 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of OEC. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Orion by 37.5% during the 2nd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 4,577,197 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $48,015,000 after acquiring an additional 1,248,295 shares in the last quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Orion during the 1st quarter valued at about $4,019,000. Invenomic Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Orion during the 1st quarter valued at about $3,125,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Orion during the 1st quarter valued at about $2,723,000. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP grew its stake in Orion by 480.2% during the 1st quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 218,989 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,832,000 after acquiring an additional 181,245 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.33% of the company’s stock.

Orion Stock Performance

Orion stock opened at $5.22 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $8.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.96. Orion S.A. has a 1-year low of $5.14 and a 1-year high of $19.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 0.64. The stock has a market cap of $292.82 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.31 and a beta of 1.02.

Orion (NYSE:OEC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $466.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $475.77 million. Orion had a net margin of 0.82% and a return on equity of 16.67%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.41 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Orion S.A. will post 1.73 EPS for the current year.

Orion Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a interim dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 20th. Investors of record on Friday, December 12th will be given a dividend of $0.0207 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th. This represents a dividend yield of 80.0%. Orion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.63%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on OEC shares. UBS Group cut shares of Orion from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $12.00 to $7.00 in a research note on Friday, October 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $9.00 price objective (down previously from $10.00) on shares of Orion in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Zacks Research raised shares of Orion from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Mizuho set a $6.00 price target on shares of Orion in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Orion in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Strong Sell” and an average price target of $7.33.

Orion Profile

Orion SA, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of carbon black products. It operates in two segments, Specialty Carbon Black and Rubber Carbon Black. The company offers post-treated specialty carbon black grades for coatings and printing applications; high purity carbon black grades for the fiber industry; and conductive carbon black grades for batteries, polymers, and coatings.