M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. Boosts Stake in PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG)

M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. grew its stake in shares of PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) by 67.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,460 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 1,395 shares during the quarter. M.E. Allison & CO. Inc.’s holdings in PPG Industries were worth $378,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in PPG. Norges Bank purchased a new position in PPG Industries in the 4th quarter worth $470,535,000. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its position in PPG Industries by 482.2% in the 4th quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 4,337,649 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $518,132,000 after purchasing an additional 3,592,655 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in PPG Industries by 815.4% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,031,164 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $362,074,000 after purchasing an additional 2,700,018 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its position in PPG Industries by 138.9% in the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 3,196,951 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $381,876,000 after purchasing an additional 1,858,895 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in PPG Industries by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,567,051 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,262,234,000 after purchasing an additional 1,590,041 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Argus cut shares of PPG Industries from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of PPG Industries from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Fermium Researc upgraded shares of PPG Industries to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of PPG Industries from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of PPG Industries from $125.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $129.83.

PPG Industries Trading Down 5.2%

NYSE:PPG opened at $106.25 on Monday. PPG Industries, Inc. has a one year low of $90.24 and a one year high of $137.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 1.58 and a quick ratio of 1.13. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $107.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $113.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.46, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.17.

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.10. PPG Industries had a net margin of 6.41% and a return on equity of 23.78%. The business had revenue of $3.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.67 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.87 earnings per share. PPG Industries’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that PPG Industries, Inc. will post 7.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPG Industries Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 12th were paid a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 12th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.56%. PPG Industries’s dividend payout ratio is presently 58.24%.

PPG Industries Profile

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.