Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Raises Holdings in AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) by 39.5% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 270,587 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 76,620 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in AptarGroup were worth $43,345,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its position in shares of AptarGroup by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 17,607 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,532,000 after purchasing an additional 1,583 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AptarGroup during the second quarter valued at about $2,735,000. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of AptarGroup by 43.8% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 113,503 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $18,182,000 after acquiring an additional 34,573 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AptarGroup by 35.9% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 805,301 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $113,395,000 after acquiring an additional 212,886 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of AptarGroup by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 646,912 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $91,092,000 after acquiring an additional 12,533 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on ATR. Dbs Bank upgraded AptarGroup from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on AptarGroup from $168.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of AptarGroup from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $155.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of AptarGroup from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $195.00.

AptarGroup Price Performance

Shares of ATR opened at $171.51 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $164.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $153.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.44, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.57. AptarGroup, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.29 and a twelve month high of $178.03.

AptarGroup Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 24th were issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 24th. AptarGroup’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.14%.

AptarGroup announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, October 10th that permits the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the industrial products company to repurchase up to 4.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at AptarGroup

In related news, insider Gael Touya sold 3,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.62, for a total value of $500,346.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 32,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,876,857.30. The trade was a 9.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Hedi Tlili sold 1,375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.54, for a total transaction of $209,742.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 9,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,430,672.66. This represents a 12.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 35,639 shares of company stock valued at $5,960,841. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About AptarGroup

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.