Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Makes New $2.12 Million Investment in Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 86,000 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,120,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GPK. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Graphic Packaging in the 4th quarter valued at about $216,432,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Graphic Packaging by 70.0% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,911,606 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $218,669,000 after purchasing an additional 4,493,702 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Graphic Packaging by 114.8% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 7,690,896 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $171,122,000 after purchasing an additional 4,111,129 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Graphic Packaging by 67.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,133,955 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $225,785,000 after purchasing an additional 4,074,508 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in Graphic Packaging by 75.5% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,459,730 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $203,770,000 after buying an additional 3,639,876 shares in the last quarter. 99.67% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Graphic Packaging

In other Graphic Packaging news, EVP Joseph P. Yost sold 70,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.20, for a total transaction of $1,834,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 205,231 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,377,052.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on GPK shares. Citigroup boosted their target price on Graphic Packaging from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Graphic Packaging from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. StockNews.com lowered Graphic Packaging from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $21.00 price objective on shares of Graphic Packaging in a report on Monday, April 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $28.44.

Graphic Packaging Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GPK opened at $27.08 on Thursday. Graphic Packaging Holding has a twelve month low of $20.07 and a twelve month high of $29.50. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $27.07 and its 200-day moving average price is $24.66. The company has a market capitalization of $8.32 billion, a PE ratio of 11.52 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The industrial products company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.06. Graphic Packaging had a return on equity of 35.66% and a net margin of 7.67%. The firm had revenue of $2.25 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.40 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.59 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Graphic Packaging Holding will post 2.71 EPS for the current year.

Graphic Packaging Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Graphic Packaging’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 17.02%.

Graphic Packaging Company Profile

Graphic Packaging Holding Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, produces, and sells consumer packaging products to brands in food, beverage, foodservice, household, and other consumer products. It operates through three segments: Paperboard Manufacturing, Americas Paperboard Packaging, and Europe Paperboard Packaging.