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 first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,712,448 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after selling 636,870 shares during the quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP owned approximately 0.78% of Axalta Coating Systems worth $56,802,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AXTA. LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in Axalta Coating Systems by 46.1% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 82,380 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $2,819,000 after purchasing an additional 25,987 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its holdings in Axalta Coating Systems by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 30,682 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $1,050,000 after purchasing an additional 1,713 shares during the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Axalta Coating Systems by 36.1% in the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 9,973 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $341,000 after purchasing an additional 2,643 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in Axalta Coating Systems by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 307,812 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $10,533,000 after purchasing an additional 18,867 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC grew its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 54.7% in the fourth quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 3,270 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $112,000 after acquiring an additional 1,156 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.28% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on AXTA shares. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on 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 decreased their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Axalta Coating Systems from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their target price for the company from $42.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on Axalta Coating Systems from $45.00 to $42.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Axalta Coating Systems currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $37.71.

Axalta Coating Systems Stock Performance

Shares of AXTA traded down $0.09 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $28.38. The company had a trading volume of 1,811,626 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,294,491. The firm has a market cap of $6.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.91, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.27. The business has a fifty day moving average of $29.79 and a 200-day moving average of $32.38. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a 12 month low of $27.58 and a 12 month high of $41.65. The company has a quick ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 2.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.33 billion. Axalta Coating Systems had a net margin of 8.58% and a return on equity of 25.32%. The company's revenue was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.57 earnings per share. Equities 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.