Amcor plc (NYSE:AMCR) Short Interest Update

Amcor plc (NYSE:AMCR) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 67,200,000 shares, a growth of 49.6% from the November 30th total of 44,920,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 11,950,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.6 days. Currently, 4.7% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AMCR has been the topic of several recent research reports. Macquarie upgraded Amcor from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Amcor from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Amcor from $10.50 to $10.80 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Bank of America raised Amcor from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $12.50 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Amcor presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $11.20.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amcor

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AMCR. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Amcor by 31.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 4,544,118 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,484,000 after acquiring an additional 1,096,664 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in Amcor by 39.3% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 719,749 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,162,000 after buying an additional 203,166 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Amcor by 24.5% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 634,631 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,190,000 after buying an additional 124,945 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Amcor by 78.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 217,498 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,464,000 after acquiring an additional 95,805 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in Amcor during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $5,919,000. 45.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Amcor Stock Down 1.3 %

AMCR traded down $0.12 during trading on Monday, hitting $9.32. The company had a trading volume of 712,840 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,863,681. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Amcor has a 1-year low of $8.78 and a 1-year high of $11.48. The business has a 50-day moving average of $10.26 and a 200-day moving average of $10.49. The company has a market cap of $13.47 billion, a PE ratio of 17.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.82.

Amcor (NYSE:AMCR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.33 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.16 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Amcor will post 0.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Amcor Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were paid a dividend of $0.1275 per share. This represents a $0.51 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.47%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. This is an increase from Amcor’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. Amcor’s dividend payout ratio is 96.23%.

About Amcor

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.