Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires Shares of 61,900 Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. $AXTA

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE:AXTA) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 61,900 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,715,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership boosted its stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 887.2% in the fourth quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 12,575,932 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $406,328,000 after buying an additional 11,301,977 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in Axalta Coating Systems by 475.3% in the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 7,838,111 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $224,327,000 after acquiring an additional 6,475,786 shares in the last quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 672.6% during the 4th quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 3,037,990 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $98,157,000 after acquiring an additional 2,644,783 shares during the period. Empyrean Capital Partners LP bought a new stake in shares of Axalta Coating Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $66,236,000. Finally, UBS Group AG grew its holdings in shares of Axalta Coating Systems by 207.4% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 2,902,507 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $93,780,000 after purchasing an additional 1,958,395 shares in the last quarter. 98.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on AXTA. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on Axalta Coating Systems from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Axalta Coating Systems from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Axalta Coating Systems from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $39.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Friday, April 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $36.00 target price on shares of Axalta Coating Systems in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Axalta Coating Systems in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.85.

Axalta Coating Systems Price Performance

Axalta Coating Systems stock opened at $34.21 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a current ratio of 2.10. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. has a 52 week low of $24.94 and a 52 week high of $35.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $30.84 and a 200-day moving average of $31.12.

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE:AXTA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.06. Axalta Coating Systems had a return on equity of 22.37% and a net margin of 7.22%.The business had revenue of $1.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.21 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.59 earnings per share. Axalta Coating Systems’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Axalta Coating Systems has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.550-2.70 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.650-0.65 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. will post 2.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Axalta Coating Systems Profile

Axalta Coating Systems is a global leader in the development, manufacture and sale of liquid and powder coatings. The company’s product portfolio spans refinish coatings for the automotive collision repair market, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) coatings for new vehicle production, and industrial coatings including electrodeposition (E-coat) and powder coatings for a variety of sectors such as architecture, heavy equipment and general industrial applications.

Tracing its roots to the 19th century and rebranded as Axalta following its separation from DuPont Performance Coatings in 2013, the company has built a presence in more than 100 countries.