Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) Short Interest Update

Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,710,000 shares, a growth of 13.3% from the August 31st total of 5,040,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,920,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.0 days. Approximately 2.6% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Axalta Coating Systems

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems during the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. TFO Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Axalta Coating Systems by 12,022.2% in the fourth quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,091 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 1,082 shares during the last quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $48,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 111.5% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,417 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 747 shares during the period. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc acquired a new position in Axalta Coating Systems in the second quarter worth approximately $71,000. 98.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AXTA has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.00.

Axalta Coating Systems Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AXTA traded down $0.15 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $37.25. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,178,205 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,034,941. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $35.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $34.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.56, a P/E/G ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a current ratio of 2.26. Axalta Coating Systems has a 1-year low of $25.03 and a 1-year high of $37.78.

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

About Axalta Coating Systems

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.