Principal Financial Group Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. (NYSE:AMBP)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its stake in Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. (NYSE:AMBP) by 30.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,529 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,992 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Ardagh Metal Packaging were worth $51,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in AMBP. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging by 11.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,065,659 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,655,000 after purchasing an additional 106,206 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in Ardagh Metal Packaging in the first quarter worth approximately $91,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging by 17.6% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 32,881 shares of the company’s stock worth $113,000 after acquiring an additional 4,922 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging during the 1st quarter valued at $265,000. Finally, Sona Asset Management US LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging in the 1st quarter worth $4,288,000. 16.93% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AMBP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Citigroup lifted their target price on Ardagh Metal Packaging from $4.00 to $4.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised Ardagh Metal Packaging from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $4.25 to $5.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Ardagh Metal Packaging from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $3.80 to $5.10 in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ardagh Metal Packaging currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $4.08.

Ardagh Metal Packaging Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AMBP opened at $3.70 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -30.83, a P/E/G ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 0.62. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $3.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $3.68. Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. has a fifty-two week low of $3.16 and a fifty-two week high of $4.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 124.21, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.17.

Ardagh Metal Packaging (NYSE:AMBP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.08 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. Ardagh Metal Packaging had a positive return on equity of 1,760.00% and a negative net margin of 0.99%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.06 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. will post 0.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ardagh Metal Packaging Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 10.81%. Ardagh Metal Packaging’s payout ratio is currently -333.31%.

About Ardagh Metal Packaging

Ardagh Metal Packaging SA, together with its subsidiaries, supplies consumer metal beverage cans in Europe, the United States, and Brazil. Its products are used in various end-use categories, including beer, carbonated soft drinks, energy drinks, hard seltzers, juices, pre-mixed cocktails, teas, sparkling waters, and wine.