Amcor plc (NYSE:AMCR) Short Interest Up 20.8% in December

Amcor plc (NYSE:AMCR) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 81,170,000 shares, an increase of 20.8% from the December 15th total of 67,200,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 12,860,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.3 days. Currently, 5.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AMCR. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Amcor from $10.50 to $10.80 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Macquarie raised shares of Amcor from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Citigroup raised shares of Amcor from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $11.00 to $12.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Amcor from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Amcor currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $11.46.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amcor

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. M&G PLC boosted its position in Amcor by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 49,940,152 shares of the company’s stock valued at $549,342,000 after acquiring an additional 2,775,794 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Amcor by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 43,190,458 shares of the company’s stock worth $489,348,000 after acquiring an additional 1,960,308 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Amcor by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 36,317,037 shares of the company’s stock valued at $410,144,000 after acquiring an additional 697,320 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Amcor by 7.8% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 19,916,478 shares of the company’s stock worth $194,783,000 after acquiring an additional 1,443,364 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Amcor by 11.6% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,721,829 shares of the company’s stock valued at $143,989,000 after purchasing an additional 1,527,492 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 45.14% of the company’s stock.

Amcor Price Performance

Shares of Amcor stock traded up $0.01 during trading on Friday, hitting $9.71. The stock had a trading volume of 15,007,528 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,705,694. Amcor has a 12 month low of $8.78 and a 12 month high of $11.48. The business’s 50-day moving average is $9.89 and its 200 day moving average is $10.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. The firm has a market cap of $14.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.84.

Amcor (NYSE:AMCR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.16. The firm had revenue of $3.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.33 billion. Amcor had a return on equity of 25.60% and a net margin of 5.68%. The company’s revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.16 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Amcor will post 0.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Amcor Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st were issued a dividend of $0.1275 per share. This is a positive change from Amcor’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.51 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.26%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. Amcor’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.