Man Group plc Has $12.50 Million Stock Position in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA)

Man Group plc lowered its stake in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA - Free Report) by 28.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 365,389 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after selling 145,542 shares during the quarter. Man Group plc owned about 0.17% of Axalta Coating Systems worth $12,504,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 60.7% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,318 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 498 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 35.4% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 2,093 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $72,000 after acquiring an additional 547 shares during the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd increased its stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 156.4% in the 4th quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 2,238 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $77,000 after acquiring an additional 1,365 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 31.4% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,581 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $88,000 after acquiring an additional 617 shares during the period. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC boosted its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 54.7% during the 4th quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 3,270 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $112,000 after acquiring an additional 1,156 shares during the last quarter. 98.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AXTA has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Axalta Coating Systems from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Axalta Coating Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $38.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Axalta Coating Systems from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $42.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Barclays reduced their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $45.00 to $42.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Axalta Coating Systems currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $40.38.

Axalta Coating Systems Stock Down 2.6%

Axalta Coating Systems stock traded down $0.81 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $30.76. The stock had a trading volume of 625,100 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,022,384. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.35. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $32.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.28. 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 Ltd. has a 1-year low of $27.70 and a 1-year high of $41.66.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.29 billion. Axalta Coating Systems had a net margin of 7.41% and a return on equity of 26.29%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.48 EPS. As a group, analysts expect 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.