Amcor plc (NYSE:AMCR) Short Interest Up 6.3% in November

Amcor plc (NYSE:AMCR) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 22,210,000 shares, a growth of 6.3% from the October 31st total of 20,900,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 9,410,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.4 days. Approximately 1.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Amcor

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Amcor in the 1st quarter valued at about $406,000. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in Amcor by 56.2% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 412,622 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,924,000 after acquiring an additional 148,482 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Amcor by 556.9% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 132,975 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,265,000 after acquiring an additional 112,732 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Amcor by 132.8% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,416 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 2,519 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Amcor by 149.8% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 38,259 shares of the company’s stock valued at $374,000 after purchasing an additional 22,946 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.14% of the company’s stock.

Amcor Stock Performance

NYSE AMCR remained flat at $10.57 during trading hours on Tuesday. 3,642,548 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,441,902. Amcor has a 12-month low of $8.78 and a 12-month high of $11.48. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $10.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $10.51. The company has a market cap of $15.28 billion, a PE ratio of 19.91, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.29.

Amcor (NYSE:AMCR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.33 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.16 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Amcor will post 0.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amcor Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.1275 per share. This is an increase from Amcor’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.51 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Amcor’s payout ratio is 96.23%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Amcor from $10.00 to $11.10 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Amcor from $10.50 to $10.80 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Amcor from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Macquarie raised Amcor from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Amcor from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.94.

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.