Zacks Investment Management Purchases 66,833 Shares of Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK)

Zacks Investment Management increased its position in Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK) by 13.3% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 569,040 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 66,833 shares during the quarter. Zacks Investment Management’s holdings in Graphic Packaging were worth $16,838,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GPK. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in Graphic Packaging by 99.6% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 104,490 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,049,000 after buying an additional 52,139 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Graphic Packaging by 25.7% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 28,970 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $845,000 after purchasing an additional 5,919 shares in the last quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN raised its holdings in Graphic Packaging by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 13,587 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $356,000 after purchasing an additional 716 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Graphic Packaging by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 30,865 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $809,000 after purchasing an additional 1,097 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Graphic Packaging during the second quarter valued at $258,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.67% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the company. StockNews.com cut Graphic Packaging from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Graphic Packaging from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Truist Financial cut shares of Graphic Packaging from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.53.

Graphic Packaging Price Performance

Shares of Graphic Packaging stock opened at $29.53 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.62, a PEG ratio of 11.58 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.78. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $29.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.50. Graphic Packaging Holding has a 52 week low of $22.76 and a 52 week high of $30.70.

Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.04). Graphic Packaging had a return on equity of 28.26% and a net margin of 7.99%. The business had revenue of $2.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.27 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.74 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Graphic Packaging Holding will post 2.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graphic Packaging Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, January 5th. Investors of record on Sunday, December 15th will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.35%. Graphic Packaging’s dividend payout ratio is 17.09%.

Insider Activity at Graphic Packaging

In other news, EVP Michael James Farrell sold 25,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.99, for a total transaction of $750,841.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 81,026 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,348,943.74. This represents a 24.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Charles D. Lischer sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.65, for a total value of $355,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 49,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,478,022.85. This represents a 19.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Graphic Packaging

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.