Short Interest in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) Declines By 11.1%

Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,040,000 shares, a decrease of 11.1% from the August 15th total of 5,670,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,800,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.8 days. Approximately 2.3% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Axalta Coating Systems

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,763,601 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $817,230,000 after buying an additional 554,806 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 15,009,959 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $512,890,000 after acquiring an additional 137,209 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Axalta Coating Systems by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 10,403,246 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $355,479,000 after purchasing an additional 550,970 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 8.7% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,771,023 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $128,852,000 after purchasing an additional 302,752 shares during the period. Finally, Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC increased its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 63.8% in the first quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC now owns 3,198,290 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $109,989,000 after purchasing an additional 1,245,223 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on AXTA shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Axalta Coating Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.00.

Axalta Coating Systems Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE AXTA traded up $0.15 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $35.85. The company had a trading volume of 923,096 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,993,251. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.36. Axalta Coating Systems has a one year low of $25.03 and a one year high of $37.49. The company has a current ratio of 2.26, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.97. The company has a market capitalization of $7.91 billion, a PE ratio of 32.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 1.44.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. Axalta Coating Systems had a net margin of 5.69% and a return on equity of 24.28%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Axalta Coating Systems will post 2.07 EPS for the current year.

Axalta Coating Systems Company 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.