Packaging Co. of America (NYSE:PKG) Upgraded to Overweight at Wells Fargo & Company

Packaging Co. of America (NYSE:PKG) was upgraded by Wells Fargo & Company from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $191.00 price target on the industrial products company’s stock, up from their previous price target of $187.00. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 11.77% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on PKG. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Packaging Co. of America from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $182.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, April 12th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Packaging Co. of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $172.00 to $202.00 in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Packaging Co. of America from $170.00 to $187.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Packaging Co. of America from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Packaging Co. of America from $172.00 to $183.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Packaging Co. of America currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $173.86.

Packaging Co. of America Trading Down 4.7 %

Shares of PKG opened at $170.88 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $181.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $168.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 2.57. The company has a market capitalization of $15.34 billion, a PE ratio of 21.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.35 and a beta of 0.78. Packaging Co. of America has a fifty-two week low of $122.20 and a fifty-two week high of $191.27.

Packaging Co. of America (NYSE:PKG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.63 by $0.09. Packaging Co. of America had a net margin of 9.25% and a return on equity of 18.94%. The company had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.91 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.20 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Packaging Co. of America will post 8.24 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Thomas A. Hassfurther sold 14,191 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.80, for a total transaction of $2,466,395.80. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 183,930 shares in the company, valued at $31,967,034. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Packaging Co. of America news, VP Thomas A. Hassfurther sold 14,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.80, for a total value of $2,466,395.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 183,930 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,967,034. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Robert P. Mundy sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.51, for a total transaction of $1,825,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 46,454 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,478,319.54. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 38,041 shares of company stock worth $6,799,177 over the last quarter. 1.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Packaging Co. of America by 32.9% in the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 21,793 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,136,000 after acquiring an additional 5,394 shares in the last quarter. Vishria Bird Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Packaging Co. of America in the first quarter valued at approximately $207,000. Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in shares of Packaging Co. of America by 7.0% in the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 181,059 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $34,361,000 after acquiring an additional 11,921 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Packaging Co. of America by 3.7% during the first quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,584 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $680,000 after buying an additional 129 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Benchmark Financial Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Packaging Co. of America during the first quarter worth approximately $243,000. 89.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Packaging Co. of America

Packaging Corporation of America manufactures and sells containerboard and corrugated packaging products in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Packaging, Paper, and Corporate and Other. The Packaging segment offers various containerboard and corrugated packaging products, such as conventional shipping containers used to protect and transport manufactured goods; multi-color boxes and displays that help to merchandise the packaged product in retail locations; and honeycomb protective packaging products, as well as packaging for meat, fresh fruit and vegetables, processed food, beverages, and other industrial and consumer products.