Millennium Management LLC Raises Stock Position in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA)

Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) by 89.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,733,703 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,292,434 shares during the quarter. Millennium Management LLC owned about 1.24% of Axalta Coating Systems worth $93,411,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Maverick Capital Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 169.7% during the 2nd quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 35,178 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,202,000 after purchasing an additional 22,135 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 126.7% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 794,454 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $26,817,000 after purchasing an additional 443,946 shares during the period. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems in the second quarter worth approximately $82,000. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems in the second quarter worth $7,212,000. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC raised its holdings in Axalta Coating Systems by 86.2% during the 2nd quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 472,658 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $16,151,000 after buying an additional 218,863 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on AXTA shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. KeyCorp upped their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Axalta Coating Systems from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Axalta Coating Systems from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.00.

Axalta Coating Systems Price Performance

Shares of AXTA opened at $37.25 on Friday. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $25.03 and a fifty-two week high of $37.78. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $34.56. The stock has a market cap of $8.22 billion, a PE ratio of 33.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a current ratio of 2.26.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.06. Axalta Coating Systems had a return on equity of 24.28% and a net margin of 5.69%. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.35 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. will post 2.07 earnings per share 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.