Westfield Capital Management Co. LP Sells 636,870 Shares of Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA)

Key Points

• Westfield Capital Management Co. LP reduced its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 27.1%, holding approximately $56.80 million in the company after selling 636,870 shares.
• In the fourth quarter, several institutional investors increased their holdings in Axalta, including Fuller & Thaler Asset Management, which boosted its stake by 54.9% to own over 5.5 million shares.
• Axalta recently reported $0.64 earnings per share for the last quarter, exceeding estimates, while projecting an EPS of 2.55 for the current fiscal year.

Westfield Capital Management Co. LP lowered its position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA - Free Report) by 27.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,712,448 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after selling 636,870 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP owned 0.78% of Axalta Coating Systems worth $56,802,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AXTA. 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 last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems in the first quarter worth about $55,876,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in Axalta Coating Systems during the fourth quarter valued at $56,215,000. Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 144.7% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,950,902 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $66,760,000 after acquiring an additional 1,153,620 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 1,717.5% in the fourth quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 921,482 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $31,533,000 after buying an additional 870,782 shares during the period. 98.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $34.00 price objective (down from $35.00) on shares of Axalta Coating Systems in a research report on Friday, June 13th. Barclays reduced their price target 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. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $46.00 to $40.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $37.71.

Axalta Coating Systems Price Performance

Shares of AXTA traded down $0.03 on Thursday, hitting $28.44. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,773,652 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,297,136. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $27.58 and a fifty-two week high of $41.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 2.12 and a quick ratio of 1.53. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $29.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.49. The company has a market capitalization of $6.16 billion, a PE ratio of 13.94, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.27.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.33 billion. Axalta Coating Systems had a return on equity of 25.32% and a net margin of 8.58%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.57 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. will post 2.55 earnings per share 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.