Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK) Short Interest Update

Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 21,050,000 shares, a growth of 20.6% from the February 13th total of 17,450,000 shares. Currently, 7.1% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 2,300,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 9.2 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Graphic Packaging by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,725,347 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $807,340,000 after acquiring an additional 145,209 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Graphic Packaging by 12.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 20,460,161 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $605,416,000 after purchasing an additional 2,294,688 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Graphic Packaging by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 16,555,660 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $449,652,000 after purchasing an additional 1,206,295 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in Graphic Packaging by 11.5% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 16,503,189 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $441,990,000 after purchasing an additional 1,702,764 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Graphic Packaging by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 14,600,941 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $396,562,000 after buying an additional 788,066 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.67% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price objective (down previously from $33.00) on shares of Graphic Packaging in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Graphic Packaging from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Graphic Packaging from $36.00 to $32.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Graphic Packaging from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $24.00 to $27.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Graphic Packaging has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.70.

Graphic Packaging Price Performance

NYSE:GPK traded up $0.03 on Tuesday, hitting $26.22. The company had a trading volume of 2,742,609 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,319,404. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $26.98 and a two-hundred day moving average of $28.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.14, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.81. Graphic Packaging has a 52 week low of $25.13 and a 52 week high of $30.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71.

Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.63 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $2.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.15 billion. Graphic Packaging had a net margin of 7.47% and a return on equity of 25.96%. The company’s revenue was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.75 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Graphic Packaging will post 2.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Graphic Packaging Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, April 5th. Stockholders of record on Saturday, March 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. This is a boost from Graphic Packaging’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Graphic Packaging’s payout ratio is 20.37%.

Graphic Packaging Company Profile

Graphic Packaging Holding Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, produces, and sells consumer packaging products to brands in food, beverage, foodservice, household, and other consumer products. It operates through three segments: Paperboard Manufacturing, Americas Paperboard Packaging, and Europe Paperboard Packaging.