Short Interest in Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. (NYSE:AMBP) Expands By 12.2%

Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. (NYSE:AMBP) was the target of a large increase in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,480,000 shares, an increase of 12.2% from the November 30th total of 2,210,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,390,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.8 days. Approximately 1.8% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging during the 3rd quarter worth $42,000. nVerses Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging by 70.4% during the 3rd quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 12,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 5,000 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging by 23.1% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 18,739 shares of the company’s stock worth $71,000 after purchasing an additional 3,515 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ardagh Metal Packaging by 34.5% during the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 19,521 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,000 after acquiring an additional 5,009 shares during the period. 16.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on AMBP shares. Bank of America lowered shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $4.90 to $4.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Ardagh Metal Packaging from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $4.25 to $5.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging from $4.00 to $4.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $3.92.

Ardagh Metal Packaging Price Performance

Ardagh Metal Packaging stock traded up $0.05 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $3.01. 812,454 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,362,216. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $3.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $3.56. Ardagh Metal Packaging has a one year low of $2.94 and a one year 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. The stock has a market cap of $1.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -25.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.61.

Ardagh Metal Packaging (NYSE:AMBP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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%. Ardagh Metal Packaging’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.06 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Ardagh Metal Packaging will post 0.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ardagh Metal Packaging Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th were given a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 13.29%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 5th. Ardagh Metal Packaging’s dividend payout ratio is currently -333.33%.

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.