Prospector Partners LLC Acquires 316 Shares of PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG)

Prospector Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) by 0.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 144,967 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 316 shares during the quarter. PPG Industries comprises about 1.9% of Prospector Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest position. Prospector Partners LLC owned 0.06% of PPG Industries worth $17,316,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PPG. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in PPG Industries by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,369,691 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,508,210,000 after buying an additional 756,937 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in PPG Industries by 4.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,717,499 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,552,100,000 after buying an additional 491,774 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in PPG Industries by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,567,051 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,262,234,000 after buying an additional 1,590,041 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in PPG Industries by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,546,472 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $660,752,000 after purchasing an additional 93,455 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in PPG Industries in the 4th quarter valued at about $470,535,000. 81.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PPG has been the topic of several research reports. Argus lowered shares of PPG Industries from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on PPG Industries from $150.00 to $140.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of PPG Industries in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group cut their price target on PPG Industries from $128.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of PPG Industries from $153.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, PPG Industries has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.77.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PPG Industries news, CEO Timothy M. Knavish sold 4,800 shares of PPG Industries stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.35, for a total transaction of $568,080.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 35,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,240,835.55. The trade was a 11.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

PPG Industries Stock Down 4.8 %

Shares of PPG opened at $98.98 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.16. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $113.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $120.49. PPG Industries, Inc. has a 12-month low of $97.49 and a 12-month high of $142.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77.

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.65 by ($0.04). PPG Industries had a return on equity of 23.78% and a net margin of 6.41%. Equities research analysts expect that PPG Industries, Inc. will post 7.95 earnings per share for the current year.

PPG Industries Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. PPG Industries’s dividend payout ratio is presently 57.51%.

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.