Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Buys 8,158 Shares of AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR)

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) by 22.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 44,728 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,158 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in AptarGroup were worth $7,027,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in AptarGroup by 12.5% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 650 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $102,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AptarGroup by 9.3% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 961 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $154,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of AptarGroup by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $162,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the period. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management raised its position in AptarGroup by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management now owns 16,683 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,621,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lifted its stake in AptarGroup by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 18,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,906,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ATR. Bank of America cut shares of AptarGroup from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $173.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of AptarGroup from $180.00 to $170.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of AptarGroup from $185.00 to $160.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Raymond James dropped their target price on AptarGroup from $190.00 to $175.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded AptarGroup from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $178.60.

AptarGroup Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of NYSE ATR opened at $151.91 on Friday. AptarGroup, Inc. has a 52 week low of $130.85 and a 52 week high of $178.03. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $146.26 and its 200 day moving average is $156.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.42, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.59.

AptarGroup (NYSE:ATR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The industrial products company reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.16 by $0.04. AptarGroup had a return on equity of 15.56% and a net margin of 10.45%. The firm had revenue of $887.31 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $894.26 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.26 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that AptarGroup, Inc. will post 5.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AptarGroup Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.18%. AptarGroup’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.49%.

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.