PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) Announces Share Repurchase Program

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, April 18th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $2.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the specialty chemicals company to reacquire up to 8.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

PPG Industries Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE:PPG opened at $131.13 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.15, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $140.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $138.99. PPG Industries has a 12 month low of $120.32 and a 12 month high of $152.89.

PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.86 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.86. The business had revenue of $4.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.43 billion. PPG Industries had a net margin of 7.74% and a return on equity of 23.13%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.82 earnings per share. Analysts expect that PPG Industries will post 8.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPG Industries Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th. PPG Industries’s payout ratio is 43.92%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PPG has been the subject of several research reports. Redburn Atlantic downgraded 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. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of PPG Industries from $170.00 to $161.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of PPG Industries from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of PPG Industries from $149.00 to $148.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Finally, Evercore ISI downgraded shares of PPG Industries from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $152.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $155.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

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.