Retirement Systems of Alabama Has $7.77 Million Stock Holdings in PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG)

Retirement Systems of Alabama reduced its stake in shares of PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 51,967 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 1,285 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in PPG Industries were worth $7,772,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in PPG Industries by 41.1% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,294,142 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $427,580,000 after acquiring an additional 959,849 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of PPG Industries by 12.4% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,102,602 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $402,718,000 after purchasing an additional 341,977 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of PPG Industries by 5.2% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,374,093 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $308,157,000 after buying an additional 117,526 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of PPG Industries by 0.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,342,002 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $174,192,000 after buying an additional 9,530 shares during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its holdings in shares of PPG Industries by 16.7% during the fourth quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,041,804 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $154,219,000 after buying an additional 149,387 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.86% of the company’s stock.

PPG Industries Trading Up 0.5 %

PPG stock opened at $132.92 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $31.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $138.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $138.87. PPG Industries, Inc. has a one year low of $120.32 and a one year high of $152.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.55 and a quick ratio of 1.08.

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.86 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.86. The business had revenue of $4.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.43 billion. PPG Industries had a net margin of 7.74% and a return on equity of 22.98%. PPG Industries’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.82 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that PPG Industries, Inc. will post 8.45 EPS for the current year.

PPG Industries Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.96%. PPG Industries’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.92%.

PPG Industries declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, April 18th that allows the company to buyback $2.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to repurchase up to 8.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on PPG shares. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on PPG Industries from $168.00 to $165.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of PPG Industries from $164.00 to $162.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of PPG Industries from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of PPG Industries from $156.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Robert W. Baird restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $150.00 price objective on shares of PPG Industries in a report on Friday, January 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, PPG Industries presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $155.47.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other PPG Industries news, CFO Vincent J. Morales sold 3,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 28,439 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,008,192.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.