Erste Asset Management GmbH Takes $550,000 Position in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA)

Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new stake in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 16,000 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $550,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AXTA. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 116.3% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 824 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 443 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 35.2% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,021 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 266 shares during the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems in the third quarter valued at about $37,000. Millburn Ridgefield Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems in the third quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 60.7% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,318 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 498 shares during the period. 98.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AXTA has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of 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. Citigroup downgraded shares of Axalta Coating Systems from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $43.00 to $41.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of 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, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Axalta Coating Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.08.

Axalta Coating Systems Trading Up 3.0 %

Shares of AXTA opened at $34.44 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.65. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a 1-year low of $30.41 and a 1-year high of $41.65. The stock has a market cap of $7.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.45.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.09. Axalta Coating Systems had a net margin of 7.41% and a return on equity of 26.29%. The business had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.31 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.43 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Axalta Coating Systems

In other Axalta Coating Systems news, insider Troy D. Weaver sold 10,457 shares of Axalta Coating Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.57, for a total value of $392,869.49. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 74,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,814,180.85. The trade was a 12.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.