Mach 1 Financial Group LLC Sells 14,972 Shares of PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG)

Mach 1 Financial Group LLC cut its stake in shares of PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) by 52.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 13,814 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 14,972 shares during the period. Mach 1 Financial Group LLC’s holdings in PPG Industries were worth $2,066,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in PPG Industries by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 11,004 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,646,000 after acquiring an additional 690 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 11.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 358,333 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $46,512,000 after purchasing an additional 35,571 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 137.5% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 34,937 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $5,224,000 after purchasing an additional 20,226 shares during the period. Nomura Holdings Inc. raised its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 8,479 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,101,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Counselors Inc. raised its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 1,883 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $244,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares during the period. 81.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on PPG shares. Wolfe Research started coverage on PPG Industries in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded PPG Industries from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on PPG Industries from $168.00 to $165.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Redburn Atlantic cut PPG Industries from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, KeyCorp lowered their price objective on PPG Industries from $164.00 to $162.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $155.47.

Insider Transactions at PPG Industries

In other news, CFO Vincent J. Morales sold 3,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.94, for a total transaction of $479,196.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 28,439 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,008,192.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.56% of the stock is owned by insiders.

PPG Industries Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PPG traded down $1.74 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $129.00. 1,957,647 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,780,763. PPG Industries, Inc. has a 12-month low of $120.32 and a 12-month high of $152.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The company has a market cap of $30.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.79, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.28. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $138.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $138.97.

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 19th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.86 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.86. PPG Industries had a return on equity of 22.98% and a net margin of 7.74%. The company had revenue of $4.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.43 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.82 earnings per share. PPG Industries’s revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that PPG Industries, Inc. will post 8.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPG Industries Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th. PPG Industries’s payout ratio is 43.92%.

PPG Industries announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, April 18th that permits the company to repurchase $2.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the specialty chemicals company to buy up to 8.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

PPG Industries 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.