Financial Counselors Inc. Acquires 205 Shares of PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG)

Financial Counselors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) by 6.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,169 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in PPG Industries were worth $379,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PPG. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of PPG Industries during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Albion Financial Group UT bought a new stake in PPG Industries in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Crews Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in shares of PPG Industries during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of PPG Industries in the fourth quarter worth approximately $44,000. Finally, Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of PPG Industries in the fourth quarter worth $46,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.86% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at PPG Industries

In related news, CEO Timothy M. Knavish sold 4,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.35, for a total value of $568,080.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,833 shares in the company, valued at $4,240,835.55. The trade was a 11.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on PPG. StockNews.com lowered shares of PPG Industries from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group cut their target price on PPG Industries from $128.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered PPG Industries from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $145.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. KeyCorp lowered PPG Industries from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on PPG Industries from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $138.15.

PPG Industries Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PPG opened at $107.32 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $115.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $121.23. PPG Industries, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $105.64 and a fifty-two week high of $145.61. The company has a market capitalization of $24.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.58.

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 net margin of 6.41% and a return on equity of 23.78%. Analysts expect that PPG Industries, Inc. will post 7.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPG Industries Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a $0.68 dividend. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. PPG Industries’s payout ratio is 57.51%.

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.