Cerity Partners LLC Raises Holdings in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA)

Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA - Free Report) by 219.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 88,514 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after purchasing an additional 60,815 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC's holdings in Axalta Coating Systems were worth $2,936,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 11,280,882 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $386,032,000 after buying an additional 50,520 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,598,172 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $225,789,000 after purchasing an additional 82,200 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 54.9% during the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,587,090 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $191,190,000 after buying an additional 1,980,296 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,874,038 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $132,568,000 after acquiring an additional 93,298 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Axalta Coating Systems in the 4th quarter valued at $87,850,000. 98.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AXTA has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Axalta Coating Systems from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. BMO Capital Markets lowered Axalta Coating Systems from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $51.00 to $33.00 in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Axalta Coating Systems from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $32.00 in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $45.00 to $42.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Axalta Coating Systems has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $38.80.

Axalta Coating Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AXTA traded down $0.36 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $29.71. 3,746,163 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,124,995. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a one year low of $27.70 and a one year high of $41.66. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $30.67 and a 200 day moving average of $32.99. The company has a market cap of $6.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.49, a P/E/G ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a current ratio of 2.12.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.05. Axalta Coating Systems had a return on equity of 26.30% and a net margin of 8.56%. The business had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.48 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal 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.