Boston Trust Walden Corp Acquires New Shares in Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK)

Boston Trust Walden Corp bought a new stake in shares of Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 1,256,679 shares of the industrial products company's stock, valued at approximately $34,131,000. Boston Trust Walden Corp owned 0.42% of Graphic Packaging as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in Graphic Packaging by 24.7% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 14,800,425 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $437,945,000 after purchasing an additional 2,927,344 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Graphic Packaging by 12.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 20,460,161 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $605,416,000 after buying an additional 2,294,688 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Graphic Packaging during the 4th quarter valued at about $51,642,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Graphic Packaging by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 10,610,233 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $313,957,000 after buying an additional 787,266 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Graphic Packaging during the 3rd quarter valued at $11,079,000. 99.67% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on GPK shares. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Graphic Packaging from $36.00 to $32.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Graphic Packaging from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Graphic Packaging from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $24.00 to $27.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Graphic Packaging from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating and set a $30.00 price target (down from $33.00) on shares of Graphic Packaging in a report on Monday, January 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $31.70.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Charles D. Lischer sold 12,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.65, for a total value of $355,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 49,849 shares in the company, valued at $1,478,022.85. The trade was a 19.40 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Graphic Packaging Stock Performance

Shares of GPK traded down $0.52 on Friday, reaching $26.48. 2,728,904 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,603,492. Graphic Packaging Holding has a 12 month low of $23.47 and a 12 month high of $30.70. The firm has a market cap of $7.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.31 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.78, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $27.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.62.

Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.63 by ($0.04). Graphic Packaging had a return on equity of 28.26% and a net margin of 7.99%. The business had revenue of $2.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.15 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Graphic Packaging Holding will post 2.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Graphic Packaging Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, April 5th. Stockholders of record on Saturday, March 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. This is a positive change from Graphic Packaging's previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. Graphic Packaging's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.09%.

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.