Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Purchases Shares of 7,783 AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. purchased a new stake in AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 7,783 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,223,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ATR. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of AptarGroup by 13.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,864,198 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $298,626,000 after acquiring an additional 214,097 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of AptarGroup during the 4th quarter valued at about $22,925,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AptarGroup during the 4th quarter valued at about $21,941,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of AptarGroup by 88.2% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 230,775 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $36,968,000 after buying an additional 108,175 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of AptarGroup by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,515,288 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $245,444,000 after buying an additional 83,452 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.52% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ATR has been the topic of a number of research reports. Bank of America cut AptarGroup from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $173.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on AptarGroup from $185.00 to $160.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on AptarGroup from $180.00 to $170.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com downgraded AptarGroup from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective (down previously from $200.00) on shares of AptarGroup in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AptarGroup presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $181.60.

AptarGroup Price Performance

ATR opened at $145.07 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.38. AptarGroup, Inc. has a 52-week low of $135.96 and a 52-week high of $178.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.65 billion, a PE ratio of 26.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.56. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $150.42 and its 200-day moving average price is $158.72.

AptarGroup (NYSE:ATR) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The industrial products company reported $1.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.24. AptarGroup had a return on equity of 15.56% and a net margin of 10.45%. On average, equities research analysts predict that AptarGroup, Inc. will post 5.57 EPS for the current year.

AptarGroup Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 5th were paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 5th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. AptarGroup’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.49%.

AptarGroup Profile

AptarGroup, Inc designs and manufactures a range of drug delivery, consumer product dispensing, and active material science solutions and services for the pharmaceutical, beauty, personal care, home care, and food and beverage markets. The company operates through Aptar Pharma, Aptar Beauty, and Aptar Closures segments.