South Dakota Investment Council Buys New Shares in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA)

South Dakota Investment Council bought a new position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 15,300 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $520,000.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 9.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,657,696 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $125,292,000 after buying an additional 382,949 shares in the last quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP grew its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 49.3% during the third quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 2,952,198 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $79,414,000 after buying an additional 974,973 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 11.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 13,470,860 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $362,366,000 after buying an additional 1,415,723 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 11.5% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,644,246 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $71,130,000 after buying an additional 272,455 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prospector Partners LLC grew its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 10.2% during the third quarter. Prospector Partners LLC now owns 323,930 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $8,714,000 after buying an additional 29,930 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Axalta Coating Systems in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Axalta Coating Systems from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Axalta Coating Systems from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Axalta Coating Systems from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, UBS Group lowered Axalta Coating Systems from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $35.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.70.

Axalta Coating Systems Stock Performance

NYSE AXTA opened at $30.93 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.63. The firm has a market cap of $6.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.78, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.51. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a 12-month low of $25.03 and a 12-month high of $34.53.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.01). Axalta Coating Systems had a net margin of 5.16% and a return on equity of 20.70%. The business had revenue of $1.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. Axalta Coating Systems’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. will post 1.88 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.