PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) Shares Sold by Ramirez Asset Management Inc.

Key Points

• Ramirez Asset Management Inc. reduced its stake in PPG Industries by 72.3% in Q1, now holding $208,000 worth of shares.
• PPG Industries reported an EPS of $1.72 for its last quarter, exceeding analyst expectations of $1.62 despite a 4.3% year-over-year revenue decline.
• PPG Industries announced an increased quarterly dividend of $0.71, marking a boost from the previous $0.68, with a dividend yield of 2.49%.

Ramirez Asset Management Inc. reduced its position in PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG - Free Report) by 72.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,902 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after selling 4,956 shares during the quarter. Ramirez Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in PPG Industries were worth $208,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 5.5% in the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 251,961 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $27,552,000 after acquiring an additional 13,046 shares during the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 23.0% in the 1st quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 13,994 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $1,530,000 after acquiring an additional 2,615 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 19.5% in the 1st quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 113,611 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $12,423,000 after acquiring an additional 18,564 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC increased its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 8,298 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $907,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Motco increased its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 19.3% in the 1st quarter. Motco now owns 680 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $74,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. 81.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on PPG shares. Mizuho raised their price objective on PPG Industries from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on PPG Industries from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Friday. Bank of America restated a "neutral" rating and set a $126.00 target price (down from $143.00) on shares of PPG Industries in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. UBS Group raised their target price on PPG Industries from $111.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on PPG Industries from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, June 13th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $129.82.

PPG Industries Stock Performance

PPG traded down $0.96 during trading on Friday, hitting $104.54. 1,010,798 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,099,474. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.68, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $113.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $111.88. PPG Industries, Inc. has a 1-year low of $90.24 and a 1-year high of $137.24.

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $2.22. PPG Industries had a return on equity of 24.18% and a net margin of 6.25%. The company had revenue of $4.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.50 earnings per share. PPG Industries's quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that PPG Industries, Inc. will post 7.95 earnings per share for the current year.

PPG Industries Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 12th. Investors of record on Monday, August 11th will be paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 11th. This is an increase from PPG Industries's previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. PPG Industries's payout ratio is currently 64.40%.

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.