AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its stake in AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 152,480 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 1,236 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in AptarGroup were worth $23,955,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ATR. Congress Asset Management Co. purchased a new position in AptarGroup during the 3rd quarter valued at about $108,239,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AptarGroup by 29.4% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,106,885 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $337,502,000 after buying an additional 479,193 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of AptarGroup by 13.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,864,198 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $298,626,000 after buying an additional 214,097 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of AptarGroup by 88.2% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 230,775 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $36,968,000 after buying an additional 108,175 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of AptarGroup by 5.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,515,288 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $245,444,000 after buying an additional 83,452 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ATR has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America downgraded shares of AptarGroup from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $173.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of AptarGroup from $185.00 to $160.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of AptarGroup from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $190.00 target price (down from $200.00) on shares of AptarGroup in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of AptarGroup from $180.00 to $170.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $181.60.

AptarGroup Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of ATR stock opened at $146.24 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $9.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. AptarGroup, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $135.96 and a fifty-two week high of $178.03. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $154.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $159.02.

AptarGroup (NYSE:ATR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The industrial products company reported $1.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.24. AptarGroup had a net margin of 10.45% and a return on equity of 15.56%. On average, analysts anticipate that AptarGroup, Inc. will post 5.57 EPS for the current year.

AptarGroup Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 5th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 5th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.23%. AptarGroup’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.49%.

About AptarGroup

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.