Raymond James Financial Lowers AptarGroup (NYSE:ATR) Price Target to $172.00

AptarGroup (NYSE:ATR) had its price target decreased by equities research analysts at Raymond James Financial from $182.00 to $172.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the industrial products company’s stock. Raymond James Financial’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 22.52% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on ATR. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of AptarGroup from $170.00 to $173.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. Wall Street Zen raised AptarGroup from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $174.60.

AptarGroup Stock Performance

Shares of ATR opened at $140.38 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $155.05 and a 200-day moving average of $151.35. The company has a market cap of $9.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.21. AptarGroup has a 1 year low of $130.85 and a 1 year high of $178.03.

AptarGroup (NYSE:ATR) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $1.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $966.01 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $954.06 million. AptarGroup had a net margin of 10.84% and a return on equity of 15.39%. AptarGroup’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.41 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AptarGroup will post 5.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AptarGroup news, insider Xiangwei Gong sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.49, for a total transaction of $1,095,430.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 10,265 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,606,369.85. This trade represents a 40.54% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Gael Touya sold 3,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.62, for a total value of $503,646.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 33,963 shares in the company, valued at $5,183,433.06. This represents a 8.86% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 15,585 shares of company stock valued at $2,418,028 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.68% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AptarGroup

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ATR. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of AptarGroup by 33.1% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,481,563 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $389,854,000 after acquiring an additional 617,365 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in AptarGroup by 297.2% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 473,021 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $74,312,000 after purchasing an additional 353,935 shares during the last quarter. Banque Transatlantique SA acquired a new position in AptarGroup in the 1st quarter worth about $41,728,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of AptarGroup by 12.6% during the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,219,191 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $329,284,000 after purchasing an additional 247,519 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fiduciary Management Inc. WI lifted its holdings in shares of AptarGroup by 40.8% during the 1st quarter. Fiduciary Management Inc. WI now owns 767,636 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $113,902,000 after buying an additional 222,577 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.52% of the company’s stock.

AptarGroup Company Profile

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.