Blue Trust Inc. Sells 381 Shares of Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK)

Blue Trust Inc. cut its position in shares of Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 24,251 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 381 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Graphic Packaging were worth $718,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GPK. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its holdings in shares of Graphic Packaging by 6.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 42,916 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,170,000 after buying an additional 2,663 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC purchased a new stake in Graphic Packaging in the second quarter worth about $853,000. Algert Global LLC bought a new position in shares of Graphic Packaging during the second quarter valued at approximately $811,000. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of Graphic Packaging by 14.8% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 11,082 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $290,000 after purchasing an additional 1,432 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Graphic Packaging by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 215,423 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $5,646,000 after purchasing an additional 7,298 shares in the last quarter. 99.67% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Graphic Packaging

In other Graphic Packaging news, CAO Charles D. Lischer sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.65, for a total value of $355,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 49,849 shares in the company, valued at $1,478,022.85. This represents a 19.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Michael James Farrell sold 25,900 shares of Graphic Packaging stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.99, for a total value of $750,841.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 81,026 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,348,943.74. The trade was a 24.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GPK has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Graphic Packaging from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com lowered Graphic Packaging from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Graphic Packaging from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $30.00 target price (down from $33.00) on shares of Graphic Packaging in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Graphic Packaging from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the company 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 given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $32.37.

Graphic Packaging Stock Performance

Shares of GPK stock opened at $27.98 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.40 billion, a PE ratio of 11.96 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $28.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $28.65. Graphic Packaging Holding has a 52 week low of $23.47 and a 52 week high of $30.70. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.78.

Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $2.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.27 billion. Graphic Packaging had a net margin of 7.99% and a return on equity of 28.26%. Graphic Packaging’s quarterly revenue was down 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.74 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Graphic Packaging Holding will post 2.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Graphic Packaging Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, January 5th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, December 15th were issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Graphic Packaging’s dividend payout ratio is 17.09%.

Graphic Packaging Company Profile

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.