Amcor plc (NYSE:AMCR) Short Interest Update

Amcor plc (NYSE:AMCR) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 67,200,000 shares, an increase of 49.6% from the November 30th total of 44,920,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 11,950,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.6 days. Approximately 4.7% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Amcor

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of Amcor by 275.3% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 6,613,469 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,931,000 after purchasing an additional 4,851,222 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its position in shares of Amcor by 39,411.0% during the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 2,811,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,855,000 after buying an additional 2,804,484 shares during the last quarter. M&G PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Amcor by 5.9% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 49,940,152 shares of the company’s stock worth $549,342,000 after buying an additional 2,775,794 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Amcor by 356.1% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,930,317 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,659,000 after acquiring an additional 2,287,826 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Amcor by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 43,190,458 shares of the company’s stock valued at $489,348,000 after acquiring an additional 1,960,308 shares during the last quarter. 45.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AMCR. UBS Group raised Amcor from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Macquarie raised shares of Amcor from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Amcor from $10.50 to $10.80 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Amcor from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $12.50 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $11.20.

Amcor Stock Performance

AMCR stock traded down $0.02 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $9.44. 9,460,756 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,901,384. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $10.26 and its 200 day moving average is $10.49. The stock has a market cap of $13.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.81, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.82. Amcor has a 52-week low of $8.78 and a 52-week high of $11.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80.

Amcor (NYSE:AMCR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.16. Amcor had a return on equity of 25.60% and a net margin of 5.68%. The business had revenue of $3.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.33 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.16 earnings per share. Amcor’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Amcor will post 0.74 EPS for the current year.

Amcor Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were paid a dividend of $0.1275 per share. This is a boost from Amcor’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.51 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.40%. Amcor’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 96.23%.

About Amcor

Amcor plc develops, produces, and sells packaging products in Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions. The company operates through two segments, Flexibles and Rigid Packaging. The Flexibles segment provides flexible and film packaging products in the food and beverage, medical and pharmaceutical, fresh produce, snack food, personal care, and other industries.