Barclays PLC Boosts Holdings in Amcor plc (NYSE:AMCR)

Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Amcor plc (NYSE:AMCR) by 31.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 4,544,118 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,096,664 shares during the period. Barclays PLC’s holdings in Amcor were worth $51,484,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its position in Amcor by 24.5% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 634,631 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,190,000 after buying an additional 124,945 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Amcor by 78.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 217,498 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,464,000 after purchasing an additional 95,805 shares during the last quarter. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Amcor by 30.1% in the 3rd quarter. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 609,250 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,903,000 after purchasing an additional 140,850 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Amcor by 11.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,721,829 shares of the company’s stock valued at $143,989,000 after purchasing an additional 1,527,492 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Amcor by 5.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,389,346 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,071,000 after buying an additional 126,844 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 45.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMCR has been the topic of several research reports. Bank of America raised Amcor from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $12.50 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Macquarie upgraded Amcor from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Amcor from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Amcor from $10.50 to $10.80 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Amcor from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.20.

Amcor Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AMCR opened at $9.98 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $10.65 and its 200-day simple moving average is $10.52. Amcor plc has a 12 month low of $8.78 and a 12 month high of $11.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.83, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.82.

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

Amcor Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were given a dividend of $0.1275 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.51 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.11%. This is an increase from Amcor’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. Amcor’s dividend payout ratio is currently 96.23%.

Amcor Company Profile

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.