Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Lowers Stock Position in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board trimmed its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) by 81.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 48,300 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 215,400 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s holdings in Axalta Coating Systems were worth $1,653,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AXTA. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its holdings in Axalta Coating Systems by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 23,951 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $820,000 after acquiring an additional 323 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 6,378 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $218,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 6,744 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $231,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares during the period. Optas LLC grew its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. Optas LLC now owns 6,024 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $206,000 after buying an additional 412 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Bay Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Axalta Coating Systems by 116.3% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 824 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 443 shares in the last quarter. 98.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on AXTA. Mizuho set a $37.00 price target on Axalta Coating Systems in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Barclays upped their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup cut their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $42.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Axalta Coating Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $42.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.36.

Axalta Coating Systems Stock Up 0.5 %

AXTA stock opened at $31.69 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $33.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $35.90. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $6.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.80, a PEG ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.33. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a one year low of $27.70 and a one year high of $41.66.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.09. Axalta Coating Systems had a return on equity of 26.29% and a net margin of 7.41%. The business had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.43 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. will post 2.55 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Troy D. Weaver sold 10,457 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.57, for a total transaction of $392,869.49. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 74,905 shares in the company, valued at $2,814,180.85. This represents a 12.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.