Evercore ISI Lowers PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) to In-Line

Evercore ISI lowered shares of PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) from an outperform rating to an in-line rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat reports. Evercore ISI currently has $152.00 target price on the specialty chemicals company’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also commented on PPG. Robert W. Baird reissued an outperform rating and issued a $150.00 price objective on shares of PPG Industries in a report on Friday, January 19th. UBS Group decreased their target price on PPG Industries from $156.00 to $150.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. KeyCorp decreased their target price on PPG Industries from $167.00 to $164.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on PPG Industries in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a peer perform rating on the stock. Finally, Barclays downgraded PPG Industries from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and decreased their target price for the company from $163.00 to $149.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $155.47.

PPG Industries Stock Up 0.1 %

PPG Industries stock opened at $130.52 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. PPG Industries has a 52 week low of $120.32 and a 52 week high of $152.89. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $139.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $138.91. The firm has a market cap of $30.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.28.

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 19th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.86 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.86. PPG Industries had a return on equity of 22.98% and a net margin of 7.74%. The company had revenue of $4.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.43 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.82 earnings per share. PPG Industries’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that PPG Industries will post 8.47 earnings per share for the current year.

PPG Industries announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, April 18th that allows the company to repurchase $2.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to buy up to 8.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

PPG Industries Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 12th. Investors of record on Friday, May 10th will be given a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.99%. PPG Industries’s payout ratio is 43.92%.

Insider Buying and Selling at PPG Industries

In other PPG Industries news, CFO Vincent J. Morales sold 3,400 shares of PPG Industries stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.94, for a total value of $479,196.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 28,439 shares in the company, valued at $4,008,192.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PPG Industries

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 11,004 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,646,000 after buying an additional 690 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 11.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 358,333 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $46,512,000 after buying an additional 35,571 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 137.5% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 34,937 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $5,224,000 after buying an additional 20,226 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 2.3% in the third quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 8,479 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,101,000 after buying an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Counselors Inc. grew its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 6.4% in the third quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 1,883 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $244,000 after buying an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.86% of the company’s stock.

PPG Industries Company Profile

PPG Industries, Inc manufactures and distributes paints, coatings, and specialty materials in the United States, Canada, the Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It operates through two segments, Performance Coatings and Industrial Coatings. The Performance Coatings segment offers coatings, solvents, adhesives, sealants, sundries, and software for automotive and commercial transport/fleet repair and refurbishing, light industrial coatings, and specialty coatings for signs; wood stains; paints, thermoplastics, pavement marking products, and other advanced technologies for pavement marking for government, commercial infrastructure, painting, and maintenance contractors; and coatings, sealants, transparencies, transparent armor, adhesives, engineered materials, and packaging and chemical management services for commercial, military, regional jet, and general aviation aircraft.