Short Interest in Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. (NYSE:AMBP) Declines By 5.3%

Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. (NYSE:AMBP) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,750,000 shares, a decrease of 5.3% from the March 15th total of 3,960,000 shares. Currently, 2.7% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,130,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.3 days.

Institutional Trading of Ardagh Metal Packaging

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Canyon Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging by 69.0% in the first quarter. Canyon Capital Advisors LLC now owns 10,154,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,431,000 after buying an additional 4,146,893 shares during the period. Newtyn Management LLC boosted its position in Ardagh Metal Packaging by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Newtyn Management LLC now owns 7,188,138 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,499,000 after buying an additional 188,138 shares during the period. Private Management Group Inc. grew its holdings in Ardagh Metal Packaging by 8.9% during the 4th quarter. Private Management Group Inc. now owns 5,633,286 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,632,000 after acquiring an additional 461,967 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in Ardagh Metal Packaging by 1,382.5% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,682,134 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,521,000 after acquiring an additional 4,366,315 shares during the period. Finally, BlackRock Inc. increased its position in Ardagh Metal Packaging by 17.3% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,002,117 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,048,000 after acquiring an additional 591,427 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 16.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on AMBP shares. Bank of America downgraded shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $4.10 to $3.50 in a report on Monday, April 1st. Truist Financial reissued a “hold” rating and set a $3.00 price target (down previously from $4.00) on shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Barclays cut Ardagh Metal Packaging from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $4.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Ardagh Metal Packaging from $3.70 to $3.75 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, UBS Group assumed coverage on Ardagh Metal Packaging in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $5.00 price target on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $4.31.

Ardagh Metal Packaging Trading Down 2.3 %

Shares of AMBP opened at $3.33 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 34.34, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.99. Ardagh Metal Packaging has a 52-week low of $2.57 and a 52-week high of $4.29. The firm has a market cap of $1.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -27.75, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 0.75. The business’s fifty day moving average is $3.49 and its 200-day moving average is $3.53.

Ardagh Metal Packaging (NYSE:AMBP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported $0.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.04 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. Ardagh Metal Packaging had a negative net margin of 1.04% and a positive return on equity of 38.48%. The business’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.05 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Ardagh Metal Packaging will post 0.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ardagh Metal Packaging Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 13th were paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 12.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 12th. Ardagh Metal Packaging’s payout ratio is -333.33%.

About Ardagh Metal Packaging

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.