Proficio Capital Partners LLC Takes Position in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 10,232 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $350,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Axalta Coating Systems by 35.2% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,021 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 266 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 23,951 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $820,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. boosted its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 6,378 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $218,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in Axalta Coating Systems by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 6,744 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $231,000 after acquiring an additional 334 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Optas LLC boosted its holdings in Axalta Coating Systems by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. Optas LLC now owns 6,024 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $206,000 after acquiring an additional 412 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.28% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Troy D. Weaver sold 10,457 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.57, for a total transaction of $392,869.49. Following the sale, the insider now owns 74,905 shares in the company, valued at $2,814,180.85. This trade represents a 12.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on AXTA shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Mizuho lowered their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $43.00 to $41.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com lowered Axalta Coating Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Wolfe Research raised Axalta Coating Systems from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $41.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Axalta Coating Systems in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.08.

Axalta Coating Systems Stock Performance

Shares of AXTA stock opened at $33.62 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $7.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.45. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.70. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a 12-month low of $30.41 and a 12-month high of $41.65. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.09. Axalta Coating Systems had a return on equity of 26.29% and a net margin of 7.41%. The firm had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.43 EPS. Axalta Coating Systems’s quarterly revenue was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. will post 2.55 EPS for the current 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.