Mather Group LLC. Sells 658 Shares of PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG)

Mather Group LLC. reduced its stake in PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 94,796 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 658 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC.’s holdings in PPG Industries were worth $14,177,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of PPG. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of PPG Industries by 41.1% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,294,142 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $427,580,000 after acquiring an additional 959,849 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 12.4% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,102,602 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $402,718,000 after buying an additional 341,977 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 5.2% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,374,093 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $308,157,000 after buying an additional 117,526 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of PPG Industries by 0.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,342,002 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $174,192,000 after buying an additional 9,530 shares during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings in PPG Industries by 16.7% during the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,041,804 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $154,219,000 after acquiring an additional 149,387 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.86% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PPG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised PPG Industries from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $150.00 to $163.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of PPG Industries from $168.00 to $165.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of PPG Industries from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. UBS Group cut their price objective 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. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on PPG Industries from $170.00 to $161.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, PPG Industries presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $155.47.

PPG Industries Stock Up 0.9 %

NYSE:PPG traded up $1.21 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $131.37. 100,661 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,767,621. PPG Industries, Inc. has a 1 year low of $120.32 and a 1 year high of $152.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.28. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $139.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $138.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.86. The firm had revenue of $4.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.43 billion. PPG Industries had a return on equity of 22.98% and a net margin of 7.74%. PPG Industries’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.82 EPS. Analysts predict that PPG Industries, Inc. will post 8.45 earnings per share for the current year.

PPG Industries Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th. PPG Industries’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.92%.

PPG Industries announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, April 18th that permits the company to repurchase $2.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the specialty chemicals company to reacquire up to 8.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Vincent J. Morales sold 3,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.94, for a total transaction of $479,196.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 28,439 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,008,192.66. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.56% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.