Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) Shares Sold by Gamco Investors INC. ET AL

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lowered its stake in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) by 5.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 130,710 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 7,000 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL’s holdings in Axalta Coating Systems were worth $4,473,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Jump Financial LLC raised its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 39.3% during the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 26,047 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $891,000 after buying an additional 7,353 shares in the last quarter. Mariner LLC raised its position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 14.6% during the 4th quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 24,931 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $853,000 after acquiring an additional 3,176 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 71.1% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 264,366 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $9,049,000 after acquiring an additional 109,883 shares in the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. lifted its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 16,630 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $569,000 after purchasing an additional 960 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Axalta Coating Systems in the fourth quarter worth $7,127,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.28% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Troy D. Weaver sold 10,457 shares of Axalta Coating Systems stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.57, for a total transaction of $392,869.49. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 74,905 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,814,180.85. This trade represents a 12.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Axalta Coating Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $38.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. StockNews.com cut shares of Axalta Coating Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Wolfe Research upgraded Axalta Coating Systems from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $41.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Barclays increased 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 Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Axalta Coating Systems from $42.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.36.

Axalta Coating Systems Price Performance

Shares of AXTA opened at $31.24 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.33. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $33.96 and its 200-day moving average is $36.01. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a one year low of $27.70 and a one year high of $41.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 2.01.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.31 billion. Axalta Coating Systems had a net margin of 7.41% and a return on equity of 26.29%. Axalta Coating Systems’s quarterly revenue was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.43 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate 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.