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

South Dakota Investment Council acquired a new stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 15,300 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $520,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AXTA. CWM LLC boosted its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 35.6% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,474 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 649 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 20.3% during the third quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 12,700 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $342,000 after purchasing an additional 2,143 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 23.4% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 44,794 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,205,000 after purchasing an additional 8,489 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 0.5% during the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 172,500 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $4,663,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio lifted its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 7.5% during the third quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 61,827 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,663,000 after purchasing an additional 4,317 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.28% of the company’s stock.

Axalta Coating Systems Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:AXTA opened at $30.93 on Friday. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a 1 year low of $25.03 and a 1 year high of $34.53. The company has a market cap of $6.81 billion, a PE ratio of 25.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 1.98 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $32.66 and its 200 day moving average is $31.63.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last posted 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 return on equity of 20.70% and a net margin of 5.16%. The firm had revenue of $1.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.38 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. will post 1.88 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AXTA has been the subject of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group downgraded 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 report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Axalta Coating Systems in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.70.

Axalta Coating Systems Company Profile

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.