Axalta's chairman of the board just stepped down from his position
The shares of Axalta Coating Systems Ltd (NYSE:AXTA) are eyeing their fifth straight win -- the longest the stock has seen in months -- after the coating company announced Chairman Charlie Shaver has resigned. Shaver will be replaced by Mark Garrett, currently the independent presiding director. A Bloomberg report on Saturday suggesting activist investor Jana Partners bought a stake AXTA could be extending the stock's recent rally, too, with the equity last seen up 1.9% at $30.57.
In fact, its current perch marks an nine-month high for the security. Looking back, AXTA just enjoyed a 13.6% surge last week, marking its biggest bull gap since 2017. The stock has since hit a fresh high for the year during each subsequent session, and closed 28% north of its year-to-date breakeven on Friday. The equity has now muscled above its year-over-year breakeven, thanks to today's upside.
Despite its impressive price action on the charts, analysts have been relatively quiet on the car paint concern -- with the exception of BMO, which raised its target price to $34 from $32 last Friday. There's still plenty of room for bullish analysts to climb on board. While six in coverage call AXTA a "strong buy," the other five have doled out tepid "hold" ratings. What's more, the consensus 12-month target price of $31 is right in line with current levels.
Traders may want to proceed with caution on AXTA, at least in the near term. The security sports a 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) of 81.7, which sits firmly in "overbought" territory. This suggests that a short-term breather may be in the cards.