Handelsbanken Fonder AB Has $15.91 Million Holdings in PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB cut its stake in shares of PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) by 6.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 106,382 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 7,492 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in PPG Industries were worth $15,909,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of PPG Industries during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. increased its stake in PPG Industries by 588.5% in the fourth quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 179 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC bought a new position in PPG Industries in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Financial Connections Group Inc. bought a new position in PPG Industries in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in PPG Industries in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. 81.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

PPG Industries Price Performance

PPG stock opened at $130.40 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $30.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.03, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. PPG Industries, Inc. has a 12-month low of $120.32 and a 12-month high of $152.89. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $140.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $138.97.

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.86. The business had revenue of $4.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.43 billion. PPG Industries had a net margin of 7.74% and a return on equity of 22.98%. PPG Industries’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.82 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that PPG Industries, Inc. will post 8.47 earnings per share for the current year.

PPG Industries Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th. PPG Industries’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.92%.

PPG Industries announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, April 18th that allows the company to buyback $2.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to repurchase up to 8.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on PPG shares. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of PPG Industries from $168.00 to $165.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of PPG Industries from $156.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Vertical Research upgraded shares of PPG Industries from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of PPG Industries from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of PPG Industries from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $150.00 to $163.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $155.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at PPG Industries

In other PPG Industries news, CFO Vincent J. Morales sold 3,400 shares of PPG Industries stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.94, for a total value of $479,196.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 28,439 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,008,192.66. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

PPG Industries Company Profile

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.