HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC Has $561,000 Position in PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG)

HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC cut its position in PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) by 84.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 4,456 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 24,893 shares during the period. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC’s holdings in PPG Industries were worth $561,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in PPG. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its holdings in PPG Industries by 49.5% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 28,345 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $4,239,000 after acquiring an additional 9,384 shares in the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC grew its position in shares of PPG Industries by 28.9% in the 2nd quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 337,726 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $42,516,000 after purchasing an additional 75,620 shares during the period. BDF Gestion bought a new stake in PPG Industries during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,452,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System raised its holdings in PPG Industries by 8.8% during the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 274,143 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $36,620,000 after buying an additional 22,079 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in PPG Industries by 17.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,703,066 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $4,159,074,000 after buying an additional 4,222,402 shares in the last quarter. 81.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of PPG Industries from $165.00 to $161.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Citigroup dropped their price target on PPG Industries from $145.00 to $144.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on PPG Industries from $162.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. UBS Group lifted their target price on PPG Industries from $140.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of PPG Industries from $148.00 to $144.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, PPG Industries has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $151.08.

PPG Industries Price Performance

NYSE:PPG opened at $128.34 on Wednesday. PPG Industries, Inc. has a 12-month low of $118.07 and a 12-month high of $151.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.26. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $125.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $130.55. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.48 by $0.02. PPG Industries had a return on equity of 23.57% and a net margin of 7.98%. The business had revenue of $4.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.25 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that PPG Industries, Inc. will post 8.25 earnings per share for the current year.

PPG Industries Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th were issued a $0.68 dividend. This is a boost from PPG Industries’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. PPG Industries’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.95%.

About PPG Industries

PPG Industries, Inc manufactures and distributes paints, coatings, and specialty materials in the United States, Canada, the Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It operates through two segments, Performance Coatings and Industrial Coatings. The Performance Coatings segment offers coatings, solvents, adhesives, sealants, sundries, and software for automotive and commercial transport/fleet repair and refurbishing, light industrial coatings, and specialty coatings for signs; wood stains; paints, thermoplastics, pavement marking products, and other advanced technologies for pavement marking for government, commercial infrastructure, painting, and maintenance contractors; and coatings, sealants, transparencies, transparent armor, adhesives, engineered materials, and packaging and chemical management services for commercial, military, regional jet, and general aviation aircraft.