Victory Capital Management Inc. Increases Stake in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA)

Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) by 1,856.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,866,601 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,566,757 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Axalta Coating Systems were worth $199,288,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kinetic Partners Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems in the third quarter valued at $40,603,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 11.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 13,470,860 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $362,366,000 after purchasing an additional 1,415,723 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 485.0% in the third quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,584,488 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $42,623,000 after purchasing an additional 1,313,625 shares in the last quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems in the third quarter valued at $32,390,000. Finally, Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP grew its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 49.3% in the third quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 2,952,198 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $79,414,000 after purchasing an additional 974,973 shares in the last quarter. 98.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AXTA has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group lowered shares of Axalta Coating Systems from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $35.00 to $36.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Axalta Coating Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $36.27.

Axalta Coating Systems Stock Up 8.8 %

NYSE:AXTA opened at $34.21 on Thursday. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a twelve month low of $25.03 and a twelve month high of $34.94. The company has a market cap of $7.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.51. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.08. Axalta Coating Systems had a return on equity of 20.70% and a net margin of 5.16%. The business had revenue of $1.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. will post 1.88 EPS for the current year.

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.