Eastman Chemical (EMN) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 14th

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 13th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.83 per share by the basic materials company on Monday, April 7th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th.

Eastman Chemical has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.8% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 15 years. Eastman Chemical has a payout ratio of 35.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Eastman Chemical to earn $9.53 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 34.8%.

Eastman Chemical Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE EMN opened at $100.99 on Friday. Eastman Chemical has a 1 year low of $83.38 and a 1 year high of $114.50. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $94.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $100.17. The firm has a market cap of $11.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 1.52.

Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.27. Eastman Chemical had a net margin of 9.65% and a return on equity of 16.40%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Eastman Chemical will post 8.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EMN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Eastman Chemical from $121.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price 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. Bank of America raised shares of Eastman Chemical from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their target price for the company from $115.00 to $109.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Eastman Chemical from $124.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Eastman Chemical from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 18th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $113.77.

Insider Activity at Eastman Chemical

In other Eastman Chemical news, SVP Julie A. Mcalindon sold 4,456 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.84, for a total transaction of $471,623.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $466,013.52. This trade represents a 50.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Stephen Glenn Crawford sold 10,504 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.00, for a total transaction of $1,102,920.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 47,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,965,135. This represents a 18.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.93% of the company’s stock.

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.