Royal Bank of Canada Raises Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) Price Target to $44.00

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) had its target price upped by Royal Bank of Canada from $42.00 to $44.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the specialty chemicals company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on AXTA. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. UBS Group lowered their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Monday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Axalta Coating Systems presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $41.00.

Axalta Coating Systems Trading Down 1.8 %

NYSE AXTA opened at $33.44 on Monday. Axalta Coating Systems has a 12 month low of $25.03 and a 12 month high of $37.49. The stock has a market cap of $7.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.13, a P/E/G ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 1.44. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $34.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $33.78. The company has a current ratio of 2.26, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.97.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.06. Axalta Coating Systems had a return on equity of 24.28% and a net margin of 5.69%. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.35 earnings per share. Axalta Coating Systems’s revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Axalta Coating Systems will post 2.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Axalta Coating Systems

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,763,601 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $817,230,000 after purchasing an additional 554,806 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Axalta Coating Systems by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 10,403,246 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $355,479,000 after buying an additional 550,970 shares in the last quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC grew its holdings in Axalta Coating Systems by 63.8% during the 1st quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC now owns 3,198,290 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $109,989,000 after buying an additional 1,245,223 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Axalta Coating Systems during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $82,878,000. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP grew its holdings in Axalta Coating Systems by 12.5% during the 1st quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 1,880,702 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $64,677,000 after buying an additional 208,827 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.28% 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.