Empirical Finance LLC Acquires 18,458 Shares of Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK)

Empirical Finance LLC boosted its holdings in Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK) by 84.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 40,362 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,458 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Graphic Packaging were worth $1,096,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in Graphic Packaging by 14.8% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 11,082 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $290,000 after acquiring an additional 1,432 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Graphic Packaging in the second quarter valued at approximately $711,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Graphic Packaging by 57.0% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,308 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $127,000 after purchasing an additional 1,564 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of Graphic Packaging by 546.6% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 944 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 798 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ellsworth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Graphic Packaging by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Ellsworth Advisors LLC now owns 160,726 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,756,000 after buying an additional 591 shares during the last quarter. 99.67% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Graphic Packaging from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price target (down previously from $33.00) on shares of Graphic Packaging in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Graphic Packaging from $36.00 to $32.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Truist Financial upped their target price on Graphic Packaging from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Graphic Packaging from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $24.00 to $27.00 in a 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.70.

Insider Activity at Graphic Packaging

In other news, CAO Charles D. Lischer sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.65, for a total value of $355,800.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 49,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,478,022.85. This represents a 19.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Graphic Packaging Price Performance

GPK opened at $26.41 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71. The company has a market cap of $7.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $27.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.62. Graphic Packaging Holding has a 12-month low of $23.47 and a 12-month high of $30.70.

Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.63 by ($0.04). Graphic Packaging had a return on equity of 25.96% and a net margin of 7.47%. The business had revenue of $2.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.75 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Graphic Packaging Holding will post 2.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graphic Packaging Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, April 5th. Investors of record on Saturday, March 15th will be paid a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. This is an increase from Graphic Packaging’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. Graphic Packaging’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.52%.

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.