Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) Short Interest Up 15.0% in April

Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,680,000 shares, an increase of 15.0% from the March 31st total of 5,810,000 shares. Currently, 3.1% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 2,010,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.3 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AXTA has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group cut Axalta Coating Systems from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $35.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Axalta Coating Systems in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Axalta Coating Systems has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.70.

Institutional Trading of Axalta Coating Systems

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AXTA. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 1,856.6% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,866,601 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $199,288,000 after purchasing an additional 5,566,757 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $82,878,000. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $66,346,000. Kinetic Partners Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,603,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 11.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 13,470,860 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $362,366,000 after purchasing an additional 1,415,723 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.28% of the company’s stock.

Axalta Coating Systems Price Performance

AXTA stock traded up $0.42 during trading on Monday, hitting $31.64. 3,006,825 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,973,334. Axalta Coating Systems has a 52 week low of $25.03 and a 52 week high of $34.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.51. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $31.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.98.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. Axalta Coating Systems had a net margin of 5.16% and a return on equity of 20.70%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Axalta Coating Systems will post 1.88 EPS for the current fiscal 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.