PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) Receives $157.13 Average Price Target from Analysts

PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the sixteen ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $157.13.

Several analysts have recently weighed in on PPG shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on PPG Industries from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Vertical Research upgraded PPG Industries from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. KeyCorp upped their price objective on PPG Industries from $166.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $156.00 price target (down previously from $173.00) on shares of PPG Industries in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of PPG Industries from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, February 1st.

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of PPG Industries by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,480,664 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,661,083,000 after purchasing an additional 3,600,558 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in PPG Industries by 2.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,977,031 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $736,154,000 after acquiring an additional 122,139 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in PPG Industries by 163,082.5% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,157,889 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $522,813,000 after acquiring an additional 4,155,341 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in PPG Industries during the fourth quarter worth $554,685,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 959,849 shares in the last quarter. 81.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

PPG Industries Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of PPG stock opened at $144.54 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.47. PPG Industries has a 1 year low of $120.32 and a 1 year high of $152.89. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $141.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $138.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.02 billion, a PE ratio of 27.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.28.

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 19th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.04. PPG Industries had a return on equity of 23.51% and a net margin of 6.96%. The company had revenue of $4.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.27 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that PPG Industries will post 8.45 EPS for the current year.

PPG Industries Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 15th were issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.80%. PPG Industries’s dividend payout ratio is 48.69%.

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.