Short Interest in AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) Declines By 13.1%

AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 526,700 shares, a decline of 13.1% from the January 15th total of 606,300 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 305,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.7 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on AptarGroup from $185.00 to $160.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com lowered AptarGroup from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Bank of America lowered AptarGroup from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $173.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on AptarGroup from $180.00 to $170.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $190.00 price target (down from $200.00) on shares of AptarGroup in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $181.60.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AptarGroup

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AptarGroup by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,207,015 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,132,222,000 after acquiring an additional 58,777 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of AptarGroup by 0.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,889,811 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $462,919,000 after acquiring an additional 14,001 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in AptarGroup by 33.1% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,481,563 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $389,854,000 after buying an additional 617,365 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in AptarGroup by 29.4% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,106,885 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $337,502,000 after buying an additional 479,193 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in AptarGroup by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,555,556 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $248,570,000 after buying an additional 40,268 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.52% of the company’s stock.

AptarGroup Trading Up 1.5 %

ATR traded up $2.13 during trading on Friday, hitting $144.90. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 512,842 shares, compared to its average volume of 299,160. AptarGroup has a twelve month low of $134.57 and a twelve month high of $178.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $156.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $158.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.16, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.59.

AptarGroup (NYSE:ATR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The industrial products company reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.24. AptarGroup had a return on equity of 15.62% and a net margin of 10.45%. Analysts anticipate that AptarGroup will post 5.95 EPS for the current year.

AptarGroup Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 5th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. AptarGroup’s dividend payout ratio is 32.49%.

About AptarGroup

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.