William Blair Investment Management LLC Has $460,000 Position in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA)

William Blair Investment Management LLC lessened its stake in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 13,455 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 325 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Axalta Coating Systems were worth $460,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 11,321,994 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $387,439,000 after acquiring an additional 988,397 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 0.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,822,955 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $246,923,000 after purchasing an additional 46,813 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,669,190 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $132,823,000 after purchasing an additional 31,894 shares during the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP raised its stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 2,096,790 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $75,883,000 after purchasing an additional 84,594 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 35.4% during the 4th quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,620,459 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $55,452,000 after buying an additional 423,883 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.28% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Troy D. Weaver sold 10,457 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.57, for a total value of $392,869.49. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 74,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,814,180.85. This trade represents a 12.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AXTA. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Axalta Coating Systems in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Mizuho decreased 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 report on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com lowered Axalta Coating Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Axalta Coating Systems from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $41.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Axalta Coating Systems currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.08.

Axalta Coating Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AXTA opened at $34.44 on Thursday. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a 12 month low of $30.41 and a 12 month high of $41.66. The company has a market cap of $7.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.35, a P/E/G ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.45. The business’s 50 day moving average is $35.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.62. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.43 earnings per share. Axalta Coating Systems’s revenue was up 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. will post 2.55 EPS for the current year.

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.