VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Acquires New Shares in Sonoco Products Company $SON

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new stake in shares of Sonoco Products Company (NYSE:SON) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 27,800 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,567,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Sonoco Products during the 2nd quarter valued at about $657,016,000. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of Sonoco Products by 5,629.3% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 6,517,272 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $367,248,000 after acquiring an additional 6,403,519 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Sonoco Products by 477.8% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,901,950 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $257,561,000 after acquiring an additional 4,880,438 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of Sonoco Products during the second quarter valued at approximately $204,968,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Sonoco Products by 357.8% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,117,022 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $90,693,000 after purchasing an additional 1,654,576 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Sonoco Products from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 26th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Sonoco Products from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Truist Financial increased their price target on Sonoco Products from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded Sonoco Products from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $69.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $60.78.

Sonoco Products Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SON opened at $47.82 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $55.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $53.54. Sonoco Products Company has a twelve month low of $38.65 and a twelve month high of $60.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.73 billion, a PE ratio of 7.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.36.

Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.47 by $0.04. Sonoco Products had a net margin of 8.41% and a return on equity of 16.50%. The company had revenue of $1.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.37 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sonoco Products has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.800-6.200 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Sonoco Products Company will post 5.78 EPS for the current year.

Sonoco Products Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 10th were given a dividend of $0.54 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 10th. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.5%. Sonoco Products’s payout ratio is presently 34.34%.

Sonoco Products Profile

Sonoco Products Company is a diversified packaging company headquartered in Hartsville, South Carolina. Founded in 1899 as the Southern Novelty Company, it adopted the Sonoco name in 1923. The company serves customers in the food, beverage, household, consumer, industrial and other markets.

Sonoco manufactures a broad range of packaging and related products, including paperboard cans and tubes, rigid plastic containers, flexible packaging, metal containers, closures, and protective packaging.