World Investment Advisors LLC Purchases New Shares in Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK)

World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 13,980 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $414,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Graphic Packaging in the 3rd quarter valued at $359,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Graphic Packaging by 29.0% in the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 5,130 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $152,000 after purchasing an additional 1,153 shares during the period. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in Graphic Packaging by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 637,199 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $18,854,000 after purchasing an additional 51,451 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC boosted its stake in Graphic Packaging by 18.5% in the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 55,289 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,636,000 after purchasing an additional 8,638 shares during the period. Finally, Hodges Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Graphic Packaging by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 370,791 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $10,972,000 after purchasing an additional 12,917 shares during the period. 99.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 49,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,478,022.85. This represents a 19.40 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Michael James Farrell sold 25,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.99, for a total value of $750,841.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 81,026 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,348,943.74. The trade was a 24.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Graphic Packaging Price Performance

Graphic Packaging stock opened at $28.74 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 1.73. Graphic Packaging Holding has a 52 week low of $23.47 and a 52 week high of $30.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.42 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $29.23 and a 200-day moving average of $28.58.

Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.04). Graphic Packaging had a return on equity of 28.26% and a net margin of 7.99%. The business had revenue of $2.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.27 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.74 EPS. Graphic Packaging’s quarterly revenue was down 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Graphic Packaging Holding will post 2.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graphic Packaging Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, January 5th. Stockholders of record on Sunday, December 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.39%. Graphic Packaging’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 17.09%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on GPK shares. Truist Financial downgraded Graphic Packaging from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $32.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com downgraded Graphic Packaging from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Graphic Packaging from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.53.

Graphic Packaging 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.