Sterling Capital Management LLC Acquires 30,412 Shares of Amcor plc (NYSE:AMCR)

Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Amcor plc (NYSE:AMCR) by 55.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 85,249 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 30,412 shares during the quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Amcor were worth $802,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in AMCR. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Amcor by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,986,593 shares of the company’s stock valued at $555,064,000 after acquiring an additional 1,249,868 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its position in Amcor by 31.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 4,544,118 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,484,000 after purchasing an additional 1,096,664 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Amcor by 39.3% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 719,749 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,162,000 after acquiring an additional 203,166 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Amcor during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,605,000. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC grew its holdings in Amcor by 292.5% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 81,439 shares of the company’s stock worth $923,000 after acquiring an additional 60,691 shares during the last quarter. 45.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on AMCR. Citigroup upgraded Amcor from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $12.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Truist Financial upgraded Amcor from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $10.00 to $12.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Amcor from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Amcor has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $11.46.

Insider Activity at Amcor

In other Amcor news, Director Achal Agarwal purchased 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $10.10 per share, with a total value of $101,000.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 88,967 shares in the company, valued at approximately $898,566.70. The trade was a 12.66 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Amcor Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AMCR opened at $9.27 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $13.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.78. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $9.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $10.06. Amcor plc has a fifty-two week low of $8.37 and a fifty-two week high of $11.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 1.26.

Amcor (NYSE:AMCR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.16. Amcor had a net margin of 5.89% and a return on equity of 26.14%. The business had revenue of $3.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.09 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Amcor plc will post 0.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amcor Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th were given a dividend of $0.1275 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 26th. This represents a $0.51 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.50%. Amcor’s dividend payout ratio is currently 92.73%.

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.