California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 45,021 Shares of Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA)

California Public Employees Retirement System lessened its holdings in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA - Free Report) by 10.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 385,698 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after selling 45,021 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.18% of Axalta Coating Systems worth $13,199,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of AXTA. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 116.3% during the fourth quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 824 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 443 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 60.7% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,318 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in Axalta Coating Systems by 35.4% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 2,093 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $72,000 after buying an additional 547 shares during the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd increased its position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 156.4% during the 4th quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 2,238 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $77,000 after purchasing an additional 1,365 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 31.4% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,581 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $88,000 after purchasing an additional 617 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.28% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $42.00 to $37.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Axalta Coating Systems from $43.00 to $41.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. 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 report on Friday, January 17th. StockNews.com cut Axalta Coating Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, KeyCorp reissued a "sector weight" rating on shares of Axalta Coating Systems in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Axalta Coating Systems currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $41.64.

Insider Buying and Selling at Axalta Coating Systems

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

Axalta Coating Systems Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AXTA traded down $1.42 during trading on Thursday, hitting $30.34. 590,803 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,029,436. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a 52-week low of $27.70 and a 52-week high of $41.66. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $34.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.25. The company has a market cap of $6.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.02, a PEG ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.33.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.31 billion. Axalta Coating Systems had a return on equity of 26.29% and a net margin of 7.41%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.43 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict 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.