Short Interest in Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK) Increases By 20.6%

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. Based on an average daily volume of 2,300,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 9.2 days. Approximately 7.1% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Graphic Packaging

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its position in Graphic Packaging by 0.3% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,007,968 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $29,826,000 after acquiring an additional 2,969 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new stake in Graphic Packaging during the 3rd quarter valued at about $271,000. KBC Group NV raised its holdings in shares of Graphic Packaging by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 26,805 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $793,000 after purchasing an additional 465 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Graphic Packaging by 36.4% in the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 18,038 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $534,000 after purchasing an additional 4,809 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Graphic Packaging during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $794,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.67% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on GPK. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $30.00 price objective (down previously from $33.00) on shares of Graphic Packaging in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Truist Financial raised 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 reduced their price objective on shares of Graphic Packaging from $36.00 to $32.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Graphic Packaging from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $24.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.70.

Graphic Packaging Trading Down 1.9 %

NYSE GPK traded down $0.49 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $25.76. 3,808,351 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,325,108. 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 has a 1-year low of $25.13 and a 1-year high of $30.70. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $26.98 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.24. The firm has a market cap of $7.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.93, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.81.

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

Graphic Packaging Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, April 5th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, March 15th will be given a dividend of $0.11 per share. This is a positive change from Graphic Packaging’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.71%. Graphic Packaging’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.37%.

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.