Amcor plc (NYSE:AMCR) Short Interest Up 26.0% in February

Amcor plc (NYSE:AMCR) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 130,510,000 shares, an increase of 26.0% from the February 13th total of 103,550,000 shares. Currently, 9.1% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 19,560,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 6.7 days.

Amcor Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of Amcor stock traded up $0.07 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $9.91. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 25,436,538 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,872,133. Amcor has a one year low of $8.80 and a one year high of $11.48. The company has a market capitalization of $14.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.80. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $9.91 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $10.33. 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 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16. Amcor had a net margin of 5.89% and a return on equity of 26.14%. The firm had revenue of $3.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.33 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.09 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Amcor will post 0.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Amcor Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be paid a $0.1275 dividend. This represents a $0.51 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 26th. Amcor’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 92.73%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on AMCR shares. Citigroup raised shares of Amcor from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $12.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Truist Financial raised shares of Amcor from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $10.00 to $12.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Bank of America raised shares of Amcor from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $12.50 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. UBS Group raised shares of Amcor from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Macquarie raised shares of Amcor from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $11.46.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Achal Agarwal acquired 10,000 shares of Amcor stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 27th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $10.10 per share, with a total value of $101,000.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 88,967 shares in the company, valued at $898,566.70. This trade represents a 12.66 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Amcor by 3,410.3% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 2,387 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 2,319 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in shares of Amcor by 247.4% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 3,735 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 2,660 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP lifted its position in shares of Amcor by 2,064.5% during the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 3,723 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 3,551 shares in the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC lifted its position in shares of Amcor by 3,794.1% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 3,310 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 3,225 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Huntington National Bank lifted its position in shares of Amcor by 52.4% during the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 4,426 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 1,522 shares in the last quarter. 45.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.