61,800 Shares in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) Purchased by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 61,800 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,099,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 65.4% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 25,806,208 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $781,670,000 after buying an additional 10,208,408 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 5,915.6% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 5,193,950 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $132,290,000 after buying an additional 5,107,608 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 68.2% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,639,964 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $201,124,000 after buying an additional 2,692,774 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $53,517,000. Finally, Kinetic Partners Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,603,000. Institutional investors own 98.28% of the company’s stock.

Axalta Coating Systems Trading Up 0.8 %

AXTA stock opened at $31.78 on Thursday. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a 1-year low of $25.03 and a 1-year high of $34.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 1.98 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The company has a market capitalization of $7.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.48, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.51. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $32.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.49.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.01). Axalta Coating Systems had a return on equity of 20.70% and a net margin of 5.16%. The business had revenue of $1.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.38 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. will post 1.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on AXTA shares. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. UBS Group lowered shares of Axalta Coating Systems from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $35.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Axalta Coating Systems in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Axalta Coating Systems has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.70.

Axalta Coating Systems Company 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.