Ardagh Metal Packaging (NYSE:AMBP) Shares Climb 7.7% – Time to Buy?

Shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. (NYSE:AMBP) traded up 7.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday. The company traded as high as $4.68 and last traded at $4.6640. 1,417,829 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 21% from the average session volume of 1,798,048 shares. The stock had previously closed at $4.33.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on AMBP shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. They set a “hold” rating and a $5.20 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded Ardagh Metal Packaging from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Ardagh Metal Packaging from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 19th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging in a research note on Friday, July 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ardagh Metal Packaging currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $4.83.

Ardagh Metal Packaging Trading Up 6.8%

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 77.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.50. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $4.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $4.47.

Ardagh Metal Packaging (NYSE:AMBP) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.02. Ardagh Metal Packaging had a negative return on equity of 27.93% and a net margin of 0.68%. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.08 EPS. Ardagh Metal Packaging’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. will post 0.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Ardagh Metal Packaging Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 10th were given a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 10th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.6%. Ardagh Metal Packaging’s payout ratio is currently 666.67%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ardagh Metal Packaging

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Weiss Asset Management LP increased its holdings in Ardagh Metal Packaging by 11,276.2% during the first quarter. Weiss Asset Management LP now owns 4,516,338 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,291,000 after buying an additional 4,476,638 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in Ardagh Metal Packaging by 28.4% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,269,861 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,243,000 after acquiring an additional 722,974 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Ardagh Metal Packaging by 20.9% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,637,767 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,779,000 after acquiring an additional 801,019 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in Ardagh Metal Packaging by 31.9% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 2,894,210 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,722,000 after acquiring an additional 699,478 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Ardagh Metal Packaging by 139.6% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 249,581 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,011,000 after acquiring an additional 145,418 shares during the last quarter. 16.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ardagh Metal Packaging Company Profile

Ardagh Metal Packaging SA (NYSE: AMBP) is a global supplier of sustainable metal packaging for beverage manufacturers. The company produces aluminum and steel beverage cans, can ends and specialty containers used for products including carbonated soft drinks, beer, energy drinks and other ready-to-drink beverages.

Ardagh Metal Packaging serves major beverage companies and brand owners through manufacturing operations in Europe, North America and Brazil. Its products are designed to support brand differentiation, convenient consumption and the circular-economy benefits of metal packaging, which can be recycled repeatedly without losing its essential properties.

The company was formed from the beverage can business of Ardagh Group and became a publicly traded company in 2021 through a business combination with Gores Holdings V.