Technology boosts PPG in Q4

PPG Industries reported both fourth-quarter and full-year net sales growth of at least 7%, crediting, at least partially, a growing adoption of its technologies.

Net sales for the fourth quarter of 2015 came in at $3.70 billion, which is flat over the previous year, but up 7% in local currencies.

Fourth quarter net income was $314 million, up from the previous year's reported net income of $86 million.

For the full year, net sales came in at $15.33 billion, flat over last year. Net income was $1.41 billion, up from 2014's $1.13 billion.

“We once again delivered strong financial performance in the fourth quarter and for the full year of 2015,” said Michael H. McGarry, PPG president and CEO. “Results improved despite the persistent, unfavorable impact of weaker foreign currencies, which were more than offset by benefits from our earnings-accretive cash deployment, improving sales volumes and our unwavering focus on costs."

McGarry also highlighted growth in adjusted earnings per diluted share, which increased 17%.

Additionally, he added that a sales volume growth of about 2% was the company's highest year-over-year volume growth in 2015.

“This solid volume growth stemmed from our ability to continue to grow share of wallet through customers’ adoption of new or leading PPG technologies. In addition, we benefited from broadening improvement in European demand, as our volumes in this region steadily improved each quarter during the year. We also returned to a solid mid-single-digit percentage growth rate in Asia, while in the Americas results were mixed by country but consistent with the prior year,” McGarry said.