Short Interest in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) Declines By 19.0%

Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,080,000 shares, a decrease of 19.0% from the May 31st total of 6,270,000 shares. Currently, 2.3% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 2,170,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.3 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position 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 purchasing an additional 747 shares in the last quarter. SG Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems during the first quarter valued at about $11,280,000. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 1,424.5% during the first quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 545,089 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $18,746,000 after purchasing an additional 509,333 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 51.3% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 23,311 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $802,000 after purchasing an additional 7,901 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Interval Partners LP purchased a new position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems during the first quarter valued at about $5,158,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AXTA has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Citigroup increased their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Barclays increased their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. KeyCorp increased their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Axalta Coating Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $38.23.

Axalta Coating Systems Price Performance

AXTA stock traded up $0.26 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $33.96. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,825,293 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,067,886. Axalta Coating Systems has a 1 year low of $25.03 and a 1 year high of $36.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.92. The company has a market capitalization of $7.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.44. The company’s fifty day moving average is $34.75 and its 200-day moving average is $33.50.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. Axalta Coating Systems had a return on equity of 21.82% and a net margin of 4.77%. Axalta Coating Systems’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.35 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Axalta Coating Systems will post 1.99 earnings per share 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.