PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) Shares Acquired by Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. lifted its position in PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) by 10,763.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 16,839 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,684 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in PPG Industries were worth $2,120,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in PPG Industries by 17.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,703,066 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $4,159,074,000 after purchasing an additional 4,222,402 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in PPG Industries in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $554,685,000. Putnam Investments LLC increased its holdings in PPG Industries by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 2,659,974 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $397,799,000 after buying an additional 81,200 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in PPG Industries by 30.9% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,768,094 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $264,424,000 after buying an additional 417,145 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its stake in PPG Industries by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,713,126 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $248,172,000 after acquiring an additional 80,710 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on PPG shares. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of PPG Industries from $165.00 to $161.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. KeyCorp cut their price target on PPG Industries from $162.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Bank of America reduced their price objective on PPG Industries from $152.00 to $150.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. UBS Group upped their target price on PPG Industries from $140.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on PPG Industries from $140.00 to $139.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $151.08.

PPG Industries Stock Performance

NYSE:PPG opened at $124.78 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.26 billion, a PE ratio of 21.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a fifty day moving average of $125.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $131.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.49. PPG Industries, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $118.07 and a fifty-two week high of $151.16.

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.48 by $0.02. PPG Industries had a return on equity of 23.57% and a net margin of 7.98%. The business had revenue of $4.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.25 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that PPG Industries, Inc. will post 8.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPG Industries Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 12th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. This is an increase from PPG Industries’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 12th. PPG Industries’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.95%.

PPG Industries Company Profile

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.