Ameriprise Financial Inc. Decreases Stake in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA)

Ameriprise Financial Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) by 46.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 896,259 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 781,543 shares during the quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.41% of Axalta Coating Systems worth $30,670,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Algert Global LLC lifted its stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 19.5% in the fourth quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 181,153 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $6,199,000 after buying an additional 29,498 shares in the last quarter. Aristotle Capital Boston LLC purchased a new position in Axalta Coating Systems in the 4th quarter worth approximately $19,000,000. AXA S.A. lifted its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 21.5% in the 4th quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 207,300 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $7,094,000 after purchasing an additional 36,676 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 13,691 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $469,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda grew its position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda now owns 8,277 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $283,000 after purchasing an additional 740 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AXTA has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wolfe Research upgraded Axalta Coating Systems from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $41.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $42.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. StockNews.com cut shares of Axalta Coating Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Axalta Coating Systems from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $42.00 to $32.00 in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $40.60.

Axalta Coating Systems Stock Performance

NYSE:AXTA opened at $33.04 on Wednesday. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $27.70 and a fifty-two week high of $41.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 2.01. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $32.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $35.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.56, a PEG ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.35.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.05. Axalta Coating Systems had a return on equity of 26.29% and a net margin of 7.41%. The company had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.48 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. will post 2.55 EPS for the current year.

About Axalta Coating Systems

Axalta Coating Systems Ltd., through its subsidiaries, manufactures, markets, and distributes high-performance coatings systems in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The company operates through two segments, Performance Coatings and Mobility Coatings.