PPG INDUSTRIES INC

PPG · Materials · $25.9B mkt cap · FY2025 filings · Narrow moat ·

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Narrow moat
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The five investor questions

Revenue & EPS trend60

2007–2025: revenue 12220000000.00 to 15875000000.00, increasing; diluted EPS 2.52 to 6.94, increasing.

Pricing power68

Median gross margin 41.5% over 9y, very stable.

Returns on capital92

Median ROIC 18.1%, above the 12% hurdle in 100% of years.

Balance-sheet safety

Insufficient leverage/coverage inputs to score the balance sheet.

Capital discipline79

Owner earnings +6.0%/yr, share count shrinking (buybacks).

The balanceSheet component abstained: Insufficient leverage/coverage inputs to score the balance sheet. The other four 20% weights were renormalized over the scored 80%.

Price vs. owner-earnings value range

Above estimateBelow estimate
26% above high estimate
Owner earnings (normalized)
$1.3B
Value range / share
$63.16–$91.54
Conservative high estimate / share
$91.54
Recent price
$115.70
Price vs. high estimate
26% above high estimate

Conservative range under moat-index@2.0.0: low end 11.1×, high end capped at 18×; 9% discount rate; high-end growth 3% (capped at 4%) using min(5y revenue CAGR, 5y diluted-EPS CAGR), clamped to 0%–4%; maintenance capex uses min(capex, D&A); abstain when D&A is unavailable. This is a disclosed model range, not intrinsic value as fact.

20 years of fundamentals

The business, in plain English

PPG INDUSTRIES INC booked $15.9B of revenue in FY2025 in the Materials sector and kept 41.3% of it as gross profit — a solid-margin business by that measure. After every other cost, 9.9% of each revenue dollar reached the bottom line.

Across the filed record, revenue grew from $12.2B (FY2007) to $15.9B (FY2025) — about 1.5% a year compounded over 18 years.

It earned 16.1% on invested capital in FY2023, with a median of 19.2% across 15 filed years. The Returns on Capital filter above scores it 92/100.

The balance sheet carried $7.3B of total debt in FY2025 against $1.6B of owner earnings — roughly 4.6 years of owner earnings to retire it all.

The share count rose 36.4% between FY2007 and FY2025 — existing owners have been diluted over the record. Capital Discipline scores it 79/100.

This breakdown is generated from the filed numbers and sub-scores above — no outside narrative, no estimates. Where a filing doesn’t disclose an input, the sentence that would need it is omitted instead of guessed.

FY2006–FY2025 · 20 fiscal years, normalized from PPG’s SEC filings

RevenueSales, as filed$15.9B FY2025
$0$10B2006201320202025
Gross marginRevenue kept after cost of goods41.3% FY2025
0%20%40%2006201320202025
Return on invested capitalOperating profit on the capital employed16.1% FY2023
0%10%20%2006201320202025
Owner earningsCash an owner could take out$1.6B FY2025
$0$2B2006201320202025

Gaps in a line mean that item isn’t in PPG’s filings for that year — the series is never interpolated or estimated. The Table view lists every filed value, including operating and net margins, total debt, and share count.

Moat Score history

9 logged readings since Jul 17, 2026 · append-only, never rewritten

Moat Score over timeLast scored reading of each day, on the 0–100 scale74.6 / 100
0406080100WideNarrowShallowNo moatJul 20, 2026Jul 21, 2026

Tier changesSame-methodology crossings of the Wide / Narrow / Shallow bars

  1. Methodology upgraded moat-index@1.2.0tomoat-index@2.0.0 — readings across versions aren’t comparedJul 20, 2026

Scores are logged append-only and never overwritten — this record can’t be backfilled, which is exactly why it’s worth keeping.

Track record

How PPG INDUSTRIES INC’s moat rated in each of the years we can reconstruct from its filings — scored only on what was knowable at the time — and what its price and returns did afterward. The score never saw a price; the two are joined only in hindsight, for education, not as a signal.

As-of scores 20112025, one methodology version · reconstructed from filings on file each Dec 31 — never with hindsight

As-of Moat Score (dot colored by tier)Indexed price (total-return (dividends reinvested))Rated Wide-moat that year

How to read this: each dot is what the engine would have scored PPG on that December 31; the line below is its total-return price path (dividends reinvested) in the years since.

0406080100WideNarrowShallowNo moatAs-of Moat Score100200500Indexed price · log scale (2012 = 100)201120142017202020232026

Two tracks, one timeline: the score has its own 0–100 scale (top), the price its own 100-based scale (bottom) — never a shared axis. The price path is a total-return (dividends reinvested) index built from the same data the forward returns use; gaps in the score line are years with no reconstructed rating (see the table for why). The Table view carries every value.

What followed, in the years it rated Wide

In the 3 years PPG rated Wide-moat (2014, 2015 and 2018), the median forward total return that followed — measured only after each year’s filings were public — was:

  • 1 year −1% vs the S&P 500’s 12% (price basis) · median over 3 years
  • 3 years 9% vs the S&P 500’s 31% (price basis) · median over 3 years
  • 5 years 57% vs the S&P 500’s 84% (price basis) · median over 3 years

These are medians computed from the data, not a claim about any one year. The company figures are total returns (dividends reinvested); the S&P 500 is the price-only ^GSPC index, which excludes dividends and so understates the index — the gap flatters the company. A quality rating is not a return forecast, and past returns don’t predict future ones. Educational only, not investment advice.

Materials context

#15 of 304 scored Materials companies, ranked by Moat Score.

Nearest peers by Moat Score

  1. #13MGY Magnolia Oil & Gas Corp76.5 out of 100, Narrow moatNarrow moat
  2. #14WWW WOLVERINE WORLD WIDE, INC.75.4 out of 100, Narrow moatNarrow moat
  3. #16EXP EAGLE MATERIALS INC.74.5 out of 100, Narrow moatNarrow moat
  4. #17BCPC Balchem Corp74.4 out of 100, Narrow moatNarrow moat

Compare PPG with its nearest peersAll Materials companies on the Index →

Common questions about PPG

Does PPG INDUSTRIES INC have an economic moat?
Based on its FY2025 SEC filings, the Moat Index scores PPG INDUSTRIES INC (PPG) 74.6 out of 100 — a Narrow moat. The five questions behind that score begin at 20% each; if exactly one genuinely lacks data, the other four weights are renormalized and disclosed. revenue and EPS trend 60, pricing power 68, returns on capital 92, balance-sheet safety not measurable from the filings, capital discipline 79.
Is PPG trading below the conservative owner-earnings estimate?
The owner-earnings value range is $63.16–$91.54 per share. It capitalizes normalized owner earnings at a 9% rate; the low end assumes 0% growth and the high end uses 3% growth, capped at 4% and 18×. Versus a recent price of $115.70, that is 26% above high estimate relative to the high estimate. This is a conservative educational estimate from primary SEC filings, not intrinsic value as a fact or investment advice.
How has PPG's Moat Score changed over time?
The record logs 9 readings since Jul 17, 2026; the latest reads 74.6 out of 100 (narrow moat). No tier changes on record yet. (A methodology upgrade on Jul 20, 2026 re-based the score; readings across engine versions aren't compared.) The history is append-only — readings are only ever added, never rewritten.