Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. (NYSE:AMBP) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. (NYSE:AMBP) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,870,000 shares, an increase of 7.1% from the September 30th total of 2,680,000 shares. Currently, 2.1% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,240,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.3 days.

Institutional Trading of Ardagh Metal Packaging

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AMBP. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its position in Ardagh Metal Packaging by 0.5% during the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 641,868 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,420,000 after acquiring an additional 3,290 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging by 23.1% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 18,739 shares of the company’s stock worth $71,000 after buying an additional 3,515 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Ardagh Metal Packaging by 17.6% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 32,881 shares of the company’s stock valued at $113,000 after acquiring an additional 4,922 shares during the period. nVerses Capital LLC grew its position in Ardagh Metal Packaging by 70.4% in the 3rd quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 12,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 5,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging by 34.5% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 19,521 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,000 after purchasing an additional 5,009 shares during the last quarter. 16.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on AMBP. Bank of America raised shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $3.80 to $5.10 in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging from $4.00 to $4.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $4.25 to $5.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, UBS Group cut Ardagh Metal Packaging from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $5.00 to $3.75 in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $4.08.

Ardagh Metal Packaging Price Performance

AMBP traded down $0.03 on Friday, hitting $3.65. 628,413 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,368,941. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 124.21. Ardagh Metal Packaging has a one year low of $3.16 and a one year high of $4.26. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $3.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $3.69. The firm has a market cap of $2.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -30.58, a P/E/G ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 0.62.

Ardagh Metal Packaging (NYSE:AMBP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. Ardagh Metal Packaging had a negative net margin of 0.99% and a positive return on equity of 1,760.00%. Ardagh Metal Packaging’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.06 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ardagh Metal Packaging will post 0.16 EPS for the current year.

Ardagh Metal Packaging Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 19th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 10.96%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th. Ardagh Metal Packaging’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -333.31%.

Ardagh Metal Packaging Company Profile

Ardagh Metal Packaging SA, together with its subsidiaries, supplies consumer metal beverage cans in Europe, the United States, and Brazil. Its products are used in various end-use categories, including beer, carbonated soft drinks, energy drinks, hard seltzers, juices, pre-mixed cocktails, teas, sparkling waters, and wine.