Royal Bank of Canada Lowers PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) Price Target to $141.00

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) had its price objective decreased by research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $156.00 to $141.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “sector perform” rating on the specialty chemicals company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price indicates a potential upside of 8.13% from the stock’s current price.

PPG has been the topic of a number of other reports. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of PPG Industries in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of PPG Industries from $170.00 to $161.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of PPG Industries from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $152.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday. KeyCorp dropped their target price on shares of PPG Industries from $164.00 to $162.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, Vertical Research upgraded shares of PPG Industries from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $155.50.

PPG Industries Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:PPG opened at $130.40 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $30.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $140.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $138.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.05. PPG Industries has a fifty-two week low of $120.32 and a fifty-two week high of $152.89.

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.86 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.86. The business had revenue of $4.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.43 billion. PPG Industries had a net margin of 7.74% and a return on equity of 23.13%. PPG Industries’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.82 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that PPG Industries will post 8.46 earnings per share for the current year.

PPG Industries declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, April 18th that permits the company to repurchase $2.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the specialty chemicals company to repurchase up to 8.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at PPG Industries

In related news, CFO Vincent J. Morales sold 3,400 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.56% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PPG Industries

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PPG. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of PPG Industries in the fourth quarter valued at $554,685,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in PPG Industries by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,480,664 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,661,083,000 after purchasing an additional 3,600,558 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in PPG Industries by 41.1% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,294,142 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $427,580,000 after purchasing an additional 959,849 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in PPG Industries by 4,484.1% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 723,690 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $108,228,000 after purchasing an additional 707,903 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in PPG Industries during the fourth quarter worth $74,492,000. 81.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.