Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 226,874 Shares of Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) by 30.9% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 507,707 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 226,874 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Axalta Coating Systems were worth $18,374,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 2.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,763,601 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $817,230,000 after acquiring an additional 554,806 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new position in Axalta Coating Systems during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,745,000. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in Axalta Coating Systems during the 1st quarter valued at about $686,000. Toronto Dominion Bank acquired a new position in Axalta Coating Systems in the first quarter valued at about $12,556,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 3.0% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 896,188 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $30,623,000 after buying an additional 25,717 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on AXTA. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Axalta Coating Systems in a research note on Wednesday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $47.00 target price for the company. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Axalta Coating Systems from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Axalta Coating Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.45.

Axalta Coating Systems Price Performance

Axalta Coating Systems stock opened at $40.66 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $36.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. The stock has a market cap of $8.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.47, a P/E/G ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.43. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a 12-month low of $30.40 and a 12-month high of $40.91.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.32 billion. Axalta Coating Systems had a net margin of 6.22% and a return on equity of 24.92%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.45 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. will post 2.16 earnings per share for the current year.

About Axalta Coating Systems

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.