PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) Board of Directors Authorizes Stock Buyback Program

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, April 18th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $2.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to repurchase up to 8.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PPG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of PPG Industries from $164.00 to $162.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on PPG Industries from $160.00 to $155.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Redburn Atlantic downgraded PPG Industries from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 price target for the company. in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded PPG Industries from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $150.00 to $163.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of PPG Industries in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $155.50.

PPG Industries Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE:PPG opened at $131.13 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $140.16 and its 200 day moving average is $138.99. PPG Industries has a 12 month low of $120.32 and a 12 month high of $152.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.86 billion, a PE ratio of 22.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.86. The firm had revenue of $4.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.43 billion. PPG Industries had a return on equity of 23.13% and a net margin of 7.74%. The business’s revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.82 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that PPG Industries will post 8.46 earnings per share for the current year.

PPG Industries Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th. PPG Industries’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.92%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Vincent J. Morales sold 3,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.94, for a total value of $479,196.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 28,439 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,008,192.66. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

About PPG Industries

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.