Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. Boosts Stake in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA)

Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) by 9.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 400,121 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 35,813 shares during the quarter. Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. owned 0.18% of Axalta Coating Systems worth $13,672,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 0.4% during the second quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 110,555 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,778,000 after purchasing an additional 453 shares during the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 9.0% in the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 6,450 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $222,000 after acquiring an additional 530 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 9,161 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $311,000 after acquiring an additional 556 shares during the period. CWM LLC increased its position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 23.2% during the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,049 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $104,000 after acquiring an additional 575 shares during the period. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 56,174 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,908,000 after acquiring an additional 576 shares in the last quarter. 98.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Barclays raised their price objective on Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Axalta Coating Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.00.

Axalta Coating Systems Stock Performance

Shares of AXTA stock opened at $35.75 on Wednesday. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a 12-month low of $25.03 and a 12-month high of $37.49. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $34.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $34.17. The company has a current ratio of 2.26, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.97. The company has a market cap of $7.89 billion, a PE ratio of 32.21, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.44.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.06. Axalta Coating Systems had a return on equity of 24.28% and a net margin of 5.69%. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.35 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.