Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires New Shares in Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 86,000 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,120,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Seelaus Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Graphic Packaging by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 26,627 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $656,000 after purchasing an additional 619 shares during the last quarter. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new stake in shares of Graphic Packaging in the fourth quarter worth about $302,000. Moody Aldrich Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Graphic Packaging in the fourth quarter worth about $208,000. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Graphic Packaging in the fourth quarter worth about $2,896,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in shares of Graphic Packaging by 102.9% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 4,928,197 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $121,480,000 after acquiring an additional 2,498,942 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.67% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Graphic Packaging

In related news, EVP Joseph P. Yost sold 70,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.20, for a total transaction of $1,834,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 205,231 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,377,052.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GPK has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup increased their price target on Graphic Packaging from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $21.00 price target on shares of Graphic Packaging in a report on Monday, April 1st. StockNews.com downgraded Graphic Packaging from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Graphic Packaging from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.44.

Graphic Packaging Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GPK opened at $27.08 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $27.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.66. Graphic Packaging Holding has a 52 week low of $20.07 and a 52 week high of $29.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 1.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.32 billion, a PE ratio of 11.52 and a beta of 0.84.

Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The industrial products company reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.06. Graphic Packaging had a return on equity of 35.66% and a net margin of 7.67%. The firm had revenue of $2.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.40 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.59 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Graphic Packaging Holding will post 2.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graphic Packaging Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.48%. Graphic Packaging’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.02%.

Graphic Packaging Profile

Graphic Packaging Holding Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, produces, and sells consumer packaging products to brands in food, beverage, foodservice, household, and other consumer products. It operates through three segments: Paperboard Manufacturing, Americas Paperboard Packaging, and Europe Paperboard Packaging.