Wedbush Securities Inc. Increases Holdings in PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG)

Wedbush Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 5,015 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 171 shares during the period. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in PPG Industries were worth $631,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of PPG. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 17.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,703,066 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $4,159,074,000 after buying an additional 4,222,402 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in PPG Industries during the 4th quarter worth about $554,685,000. Putnam Investments LLC increased its position in PPG Industries by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 2,659,974 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $397,799,000 after purchasing an additional 81,200 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its holdings in shares of PPG Industries by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,713,126 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $248,172,000 after purchasing an additional 80,710 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of PPG Industries by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,287,925 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $192,609,000 after purchasing an additional 17,767 shares during the period. 81.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PPG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of PPG Industries from $148.00 to $144.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Citigroup reduced their price target on PPG Industries from $145.00 to $144.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Bank of America dropped their price objective on PPG Industries from $152.00 to $150.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of PPG Industries from $162.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of PPG Industries from $140.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $151.08.

PPG Industries Price Performance

NYSE PPG opened at $125.49 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $29.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.20, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.49 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $125.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $131.40. PPG Industries, Inc. has a 1 year low of $118.07 and a 1 year high of $151.16.

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $4.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.25 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that PPG Industries, Inc. will post 8.25 earnings per share for the current year.

PPG Industries Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 12th were issued 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 2.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. PPG Industries’s dividend payout ratio is 45.95%.

PPG Industries 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.