ING Groep NV Takes $6.16 Million Position in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA)

ING Groep NV acquired a new stake in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 180,000 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,160,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 116.3% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 824 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 443 shares during the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at about $37,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 35.2% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,021 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 266 shares during the last quarter. Millburn Ridgefield Corp purchased a new position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at about $54,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.28% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Troy D. Weaver sold 10,457 shares of the firm’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 sale, the insider now owns 74,905 shares in the company, valued at $2,814,180.85. This trade represents a 12.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AXTA. Citigroup cut Axalta Coating Systems from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $45.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Axalta Coating Systems from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $41.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.08.

Axalta Coating Systems Stock Performance

NYSE AXTA opened at $36.02 on Friday. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a 1-year low of $30.41 and a 1-year high of $41.65. The company has a market capitalization of $7.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.23, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.46. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $35.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.56. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 was up 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.43 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Axalta Coating Systems 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.