Wedgewood Investors Inc. PA Raises Stake in PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG)

Wedgewood Investors Inc. PA boosted its holdings in shares of PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) by 21.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,499 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 800 shares during the quarter. Wedgewood Investors Inc. PA’s holdings in PPG Industries were worth $673,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of PPG. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 12.5% in the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 71,209 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $9,243,000 after buying an additional 7,886 shares during the last quarter. Vicus Capital purchased a new position in shares of PPG Industries during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $322,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 255,461 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $33,159,000 after purchasing an additional 11,754 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. boosted its holdings in PPG Industries by 2.3% during the third quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 35,716 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $4,636,000 after buying an additional 788 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tectonic Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in PPG Industries by 562.3% during the third quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC now owns 33,539 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $4,353,000 after buying an additional 28,475 shares in the last quarter. 81.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PPG Industries news, CFO Vincent J. Morales sold 3,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.94, for a total transaction of $479,196.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 28,439 shares in the company, valued at $4,008,192.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.56% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on PPG. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of PPG Industries from $156.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of PPG Industries from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $150.00 to $163.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of PPG Industries from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of PPG Industries from $149.00 to $148.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of PPG Industries in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $155.47.

PPG Industries Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:PPG traded up $1.03 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $130.03. The company had a trading volume of 247,768 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,763,772. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.55 and a quick ratio of 1.08. PPG Industries, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $120.32 and a fifty-two week high of $152.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $138.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $138.97.

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.86 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.86. PPG Industries had a return on equity of 22.98% and a net margin of 7.74%. The firm had revenue of $4.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.43 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.82 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that PPG Industries, Inc. will post 8.45 EPS for the current year.

PPG Industries declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, April 18th that authorizes the company to repurchase $2.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the specialty chemicals company to repurchase up to 8.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

PPG Industries Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be given a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.00%. PPG Industries’s payout ratio is 43.92%.

About PPG Industries

PPG Industries, Inc manufactures and distributes paints, coatings, and specialty materials in the United States, Canada, the Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It operates through two segments, Performance Coatings and Industrial Coatings. The Performance Coatings segment offers coatings, solvents, adhesives, sealants, sundries, and software for automotive and commercial transport/fleet repair and refurbishing, light industrial coatings, and specialty coatings for signs; wood stains; paints, thermoplastics, pavement marking products, and other advanced technologies for pavement marking for government, commercial infrastructure, painting, and maintenance contractors; and coatings, sealants, transparencies, transparent armor, adhesives, engineered materials, and packaging and chemical management services for commercial, military, regional jet, and general aviation aircraft.