Boussard & Gavaudan Investment Management LLP Purchases Shares of 244,069 Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA)

Boussard & Gavaudan Investment Management LLP acquired a new position in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 244,069 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,301,000. Boussard & Gavaudan Investment Management LLP owned approximately 0.11% of Axalta Coating Systems at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 168.4% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 29,481 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,067,000 after buying an additional 18,496 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $214,000. Blueshift Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems in the 3rd quarter worth $602,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 151.7% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 633,017 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $22,909,000 after acquiring an additional 381,488 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 12.9% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 18,940 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $685,000 after buying an additional 2,165 shares during the period. 98.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on AXTA shares. Wolfe Research raised shares of Axalta Coating Systems from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $41.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, January 17th. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Axalta Coating Systems in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com lowered Axalta Coating Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Citigroup lowered shares of Axalta Coating Systems from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $45.00 to $41.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Axalta Coating Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.08.

Axalta Coating Systems Price Performance

Shares of AXTA opened at $33.08 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.56. The stock has a market cap of $7.22 billion, a PE ratio of 18.58, a P/E/G ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.45. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a 1-year low of $30.41 and a 1-year high of $41.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last announced its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.31 billion. Axalta Coating Systems had a return on equity of 26.29% and a net margin of 7.41%. Axalta Coating Systems’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.43 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. will post 2.55 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Troy D. Weaver sold 10,457 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.57, for a total transaction of $392,869.49. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 74,905 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,814,180.85. The trade was a 12.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.