Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON)

Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON) by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 43,743 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 715 shares during the quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Sonoco Products were worth $2,219,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in Sonoco Products by 9.3% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,490,580 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $75,602,000 after acquiring an additional 126,643 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Sonoco Products by 13,464.6% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,980,297 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $100,441,000 after purchasing an additional 1,965,698 shares in the last quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ acquired a new stake in shares of Sonoco Products in the 2nd quarter valued at about $786,000. AE Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Sonoco Products by 7.3% during the second quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 182,296 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $9,246,000 after purchasing an additional 12,401 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new stake in Sonoco Products in the second quarter valued at about $2,419,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on SON. Citigroup reduced their target price on Sonoco Products from $64.00 to $60.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 8th. Wells Fargo & Company cut Sonoco Products from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $54.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Raymond James assumed coverage on shares of Sonoco Products in a research note on Friday, July 19th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $62.00 target price for the company. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Sonoco Products from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $58.00.

Sonoco Products Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE SON opened at $54.54 on Friday. Sonoco Products has a 12-month low of $48.22 and a 12-month high of $61.73. The company has a market cap of $5.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $52.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.34.

Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $1.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.26 by $0.02. Sonoco Products had a return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 5.57%. The company had revenue of $1.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.69 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.38 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Sonoco Products will post 5.09 EPS for the current year.

Sonoco Products Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. Sonoco Products’s payout ratio is 52.53%.

Sonoco Products Company Profile

Sonoco Products Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells various engineered and sustainable packaging products in North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company operates Consumer Packaging and Industrial Paper Packaging segments. The Consumer Packaging segment offers round and shaped rigid paper, steel, and plastic containers; metal and peelable membrane ends, closures, and components; thermoformed plastic trays and enclosures; and high-barrier flexible packaging products.