Evercore ISI Begins Coverage on Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA)

Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) in a report issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage issued an outperform rating and a $47.00 price target on the specialty chemicals company’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on AXTA. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Axalta Coating Systems from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Mizuho raised their price objective on Axalta Coating Systems from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Barclays lifted their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $42.45.

Axalta Coating Systems Price Performance

NYSE:AXTA opened at $40.29 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 2.00 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.64. Axalta Coating Systems has a 1 year low of $30.40 and a 1 year high of $40.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.22, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.43.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.08. Axalta Coating Systems had a return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 6.22%. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.32 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.45 EPS. Axalta Coating Systems’s quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Axalta Coating Systems will post 2.16 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Axalta Coating Systems

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AXTA. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 89.7% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,733,703 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $93,411,000 after buying an additional 1,292,434 shares during the last quarter. Interval Partners LP raised its stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 716.6% during the 2nd quarter. Interval Partners LP now owns 1,224,961 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $41,857,000 after buying an additional 1,074,961 shares during the last quarter. PointState Capital LP purchased a new position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,257,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,763,601 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $817,230,000 after purchasing an additional 554,806 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 10,403,246 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $355,479,000 after purchasing an additional 550,970 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.28% of the company’s stock.

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.