Melqart Asset Management UK Ltd Decreases Stake in Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. (NYSE:AMBP)

Melqart Asset Management UK Ltd lessened its stake in Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. (NYSE:AMBP) by 6.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 967,213 shares of the company’s stock after selling 62,908 shares during the quarter. Melqart Asset Management UK Ltd’s holdings in Ardagh Metal Packaging were worth $3,646,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AMBP. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Ardagh Metal Packaging during the third quarter worth $42,000. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Ardagh Metal Packaging in the 2nd quarter valued at about $45,000. nVerses Capital LLC increased its holdings in Ardagh Metal Packaging by 70.4% during the 3rd quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 12,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 5,000 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging by 34.5% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 19,521 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,000 after purchasing an additional 5,009 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC grew its position in shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging by 23.1% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 18,739 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 3,515 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 16.93% of the company’s stock.

Ardagh Metal Packaging Stock Down 1.3 %

Ardagh Metal Packaging stock opened at $3.72 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 124.21, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.17. Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. has a one year low of $3.16 and a one year high of $4.26. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $3.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $3.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.22 billion, a P/E ratio of -31.00, a P/E/G ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 0.61.

Ardagh Metal Packaging (NYSE:AMBP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. Ardagh Metal Packaging had a negative net margin of 0.99% and a positive return on equity of 1,760.00%. The company’s revenue was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.06 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. will post 0.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Ardagh Metal Packaging Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 19th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 10.75%. Ardagh Metal Packaging’s payout ratio is currently -333.31%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on AMBP. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $3.80 to $5.10 in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Ardagh Metal Packaging from $4.00 to $4.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Ardagh Metal Packaging from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $4.25 to $5.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $4.08.

About Ardagh Metal Packaging

Ardagh Metal Packaging SA, together with its subsidiaries, supplies consumer metal beverage cans in Europe, the United States, and Brazil. Its products are used in various end-use categories, including beer, carbonated soft drinks, energy drinks, hard seltzers, juices, pre-mixed cocktails, teas, sparkling waters, and wine.