Avery Dennison (NYSE:AVY) Lifted to Buy at Bank of America

Bank of America upgraded shares of Avery Dennison (NYSE:AVY) from an underperform rating to a buy rating in a report released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat reports. Bank of America currently has $250.00 price objective on the industrial products company’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $207.00.

AVY has been the topic of several other reports. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Avery Dennison from $241.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Avery Dennison from $253.00 to $258.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage on shares of Avery Dennison in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. They set a “buy” rating and a $274.60 price objective on the stock. UBS Group downgraded shares of Avery Dennison from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $262.00 to $235.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $252.00 price objective (down from $254.00) on shares of Avery Dennison in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $246.78.

Avery Dennison Price Performance

Shares of AVY opened at $217.33 on Thursday. Avery Dennison has a twelve month low of $165.21 and a twelve month high of $233.48. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $216.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $218.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.73, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Avery Dennison (NYSE:AVY) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The industrial products company reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.26 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $2.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.18 billion. Avery Dennison had a net margin of 7.34% and a return on equity of 33.44%. The company’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.92 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Avery Dennison will post 9.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Avery Dennison Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a dividend of $0.88 per share. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. Avery Dennison’s payout ratio is currently 51.39%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Avery Dennison news, Chairman Mitchell R. Butier sold 3,000 shares of Avery Dennison stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.95, for a total transaction of $608,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 304,114 shares in the company, valued at approximately $61,719,936.30. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, Chairman Mitchell R. Butier sold 7,108 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.12, for a total value of $1,550,396.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 304,114 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $66,333,345.68. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Chairman Mitchell R. Butier sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.95, for a total transaction of $608,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 304,114 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $61,719,936.30. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 59,108 shares of company stock worth $12,545,087. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Avery Dennison

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Avery Dennison in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Avery Dennison during the second quarter worth approximately $42,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Avery Dennison during the second quarter worth approximately $51,000. Palisade Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Avery Dennison during the first quarter worth approximately $64,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in Avery Dennison by 936.7% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 311 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $68,000 after buying an additional 281 shares during the period. 94.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Avery Dennison Company Profile

Avery Dennison Corporation operates as a materials science and digital identification solutions company in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, Latin, America, and internationally. It provides pressure-sensitive materials comprising papers, plastic films, metal foils, and fabrics; performance tapes products, including tapes for wire harnessing, as well as cable wrapping for automotive, electrical, and general industrial applications; mechanical fasteners, which are precision-extruded and injection-molded plastic devices used in various automotive, general industrial, and retail applications; and other pressure-sensitive adhesive-based materials and converted products under the Fasson, JAC, Yongle, and Avery Dennison brands.