Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Takes $669,000 Position in PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new stake in PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 4,617 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $669,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its holdings in shares of PPG Industries by 2,278.6% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 333 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 319 shares during the period. Advisor Resource Council bought a new stake in shares of PPG Industries in the 4th quarter worth approximately $265,000. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of PPG Industries by 35.6% in the 4th quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 1,870 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $280,000 after purchasing an additional 491 shares during the period. Mutual Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of PPG Industries by 10.8% in the 4th quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 1,887 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the period. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in PPG Industries by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 14,974 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,239,000 after buying an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.86% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PPG Industries news, CEO Timothy M. Knavish purchased 2,061 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 8th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $133.24 per share, with a total value of $274,607.64. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,774,388.92. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

PPG Industries Price Performance

NYSE:PPG traded up $0.33 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $128.37. The company had a trading volume of 1,608,276 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,666,760. PPG Industries, Inc. has a 52-week low of $120.32 and a 52-week high of $151.18. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $129.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $136.16. The company has a market capitalization of $30.10 billion, a PE ratio of 21.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.48 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $4.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.93 billion. PPG Industries had a net margin of 7.98% and a return on equity of 23.50%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.25 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that PPG Industries, Inc. will post 8.23 earnings per share for the current year.

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

PPG Industries Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th will be paid a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 12th. This is an increase from PPG Industries’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.12%. PPG Industries’s payout ratio is currently 43.92%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of PPG Industries from $140.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of PPG Industries from $162.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of PPG Industries from $165.00 to $161.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Evercore ISI lowered shares of PPG Industries from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $152.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of PPG Industries from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $150.00 to $163.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $151.54.

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.