River Road Asset Management LLC Has $4.98 Million Holdings in AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR)

River Road Asset Management LLC decreased its holdings in shares of AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 40,295 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 981 shares during the period. River Road Asset Management LLC’s holdings in AptarGroup were worth $4,981,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ATR. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in AptarGroup by 191.3% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 15,894 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,965,000 after acquiring an additional 10,437 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its stake in shares of AptarGroup by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,438,442 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $177,820,000 after purchasing an additional 21,545 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky increased its holdings in AptarGroup by 93.5% in the third quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 22,346 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,794,000 after purchasing an additional 10,796 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in AptarGroup by 19.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,371,141 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $171,447,000 after purchasing an additional 225,296 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG lifted its stake in AptarGroup by 65.4% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 53,313 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,666,000 after buying an additional 21,084 shares during the period. 88.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ATR has been the subject of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird upgraded AptarGroup from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $125.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of AptarGroup from $157.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th.

Insider Buying and Selling at AptarGroup

In other news, CEO Stephan B. Tanda sold 32,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.67, for a total transaction of $4,533,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 159,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,528,930.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Stephan B. Tanda sold 32,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.67, for a total value of $4,533,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 159,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,528,930.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Gael Touya sold 3,500 shares of AptarGroup stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.84, for a total value of $499,940.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 33,426 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,774,569.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 37,500 shares of company stock valued at $5,318,280. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

AptarGroup Stock Performance

ATR stock opened at $138.00 on Thursday. AptarGroup, Inc. has a 1-year low of $111.63 and a 1-year high of $145.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm has a market cap of $9.13 billion, a PE ratio of 32.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 0.59. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $140.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $131.39.

AptarGroup (NYSE:ATR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The industrial products company reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.09. AptarGroup had a return on equity of 14.46% and a net margin of 8.16%. The company had revenue of $838.48 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $842.50 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.92 earnings per share. AptarGroup’s revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that AptarGroup, Inc. will post 5.22 earnings per share for the current year.

AptarGroup Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 25th will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 24th. AptarGroup’s payout ratio is currently 38.59%.

AptarGroup Profile

AptarGroup, Inc designs and manufactures a range of drug delivery, consumer product dispensing, and active material science solutions and services for the pharmaceutical, beauty, personal care, home care, and food and beverage markets. The company operates through Aptar Pharma, Aptar Beauty, and Aptar Closures segments.