Wells Fargo & Company Upgrades Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK) to Equal Weight

Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $27.00 price target on the industrial products company’s stock, up from their previous price target of $24.00. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price points to a potential upside of 1.73% from the company’s previous close.

GPK has been the topic of a number of other reports. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Graphic Packaging from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com lowered Graphic Packaging from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Truist Financial downgraded shares of Graphic Packaging from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Graphic Packaging presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $32.37.

Graphic Packaging Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of GPK stock opened at $26.54 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.34, a PEG ratio of 11.42 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 1.73. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $28.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.54. Graphic Packaging has a twelve month low of $23.47 and a twelve month high of $30.70.

Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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). Graphic Packaging had a return on equity of 28.26% and a net margin of 7.99%. The firm had revenue of $2.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.27 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.74 earnings per share. Graphic Packaging’s quarterly revenue was down 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Graphic Packaging will post 2.52 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Graphic Packaging news, EVP Michael James Farrell sold 25,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.99, for a total transaction of $750,841.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 81,026 shares in the company, valued at $2,348,943.74. This trade represents a 24.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Charles D. Lischer sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The shares were 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 approximately $1,478,022.85. This represents a 19.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of Graphic Packaging by 546.6% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 944 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 798 shares in the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Graphic Packaging during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in shares of Graphic Packaging in the third quarter valued at approximately $73,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Graphic Packaging by 57.0% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,308 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $127,000 after acquiring an additional 1,564 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. grew its position in Graphic Packaging by 13.7% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 5,816 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $152,000 after acquiring an additional 699 shares during the last quarter. 99.67% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.