Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK) Plans $0.10 Quarterly Dividend

Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, November 15th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Sunday, December 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.10 per share by the industrial products company on Sunday, January 5th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th.

Graphic Packaging has increased its dividend by an average of 10.1% annually over the last three years. Graphic Packaging has a payout ratio of 15.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Graphic Packaging to earn $2.66 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 15.0%.

Graphic Packaging Price Performance

GPK stock traded down $0.13 during trading on Friday, hitting $28.25. The company had a trading volume of 1,948,289 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,557,790. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.13, a P/E/G ratio of 11.13 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.78. The business has a 50 day moving average of $29.25 and a 200 day moving average of $28.28. Graphic Packaging has a fifty-two week low of $22.04 and a fifty-two week high of $30.70.

Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.68 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $2.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.27 billion. Graphic Packaging had a net margin of 7.99% and a return on equity of 28.26%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.74 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Graphic Packaging will post 2.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on GPK shares. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Graphic Packaging from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Truist Financial downgraded Graphic Packaging from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the company from $32.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Graphic Packaging from $30.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Graphic Packaging from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Graphic Packaging from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.53.

Insider Transactions at Graphic Packaging

In other Graphic Packaging news, EVP Michael James Farrell sold 25,900 shares of Graphic Packaging stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.99, for a total transaction of $750,841.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 81,026 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,348,943.74. The trade was a 24.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.