Packaging Co. of America (NYSE:PKG) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wells Fargo & Company

Packaging Co. of America (NYSE:PKG) was upgraded by Wells Fargo & Company from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a $191.00 target price on the industrial products company’s stock, up from their previous target price of $187.00. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price target indicates a potential upside of 11.53% from the stock’s previous close.

PKG has been the subject of a number of other research reports. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Packaging Co. of America from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $182.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, April 12th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Packaging Co. of America from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Packaging Co. of America from $170.00 to $187.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Packaging Co. of America from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Packaging Co. of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $172.00 to $202.00 in a report on Monday, March 4th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Packaging Co. of America currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $173.57.

Packaging Co. of America Stock Performance

Shares of PKG stock opened at $171.25 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.41, a PEG ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 2.57. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $181.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $168.06. Packaging Co. of America has a 52 week low of $122.20 and a 52 week high of $191.27.

Packaging Co. of America (NYSE:PKG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.63 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.91 billion. Packaging Co. of America had a net margin of 9.25% and a return on equity of 18.94%. Packaging Co. of America’s revenue was up .2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.20 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Packaging Co. of America will post 8.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Thomas A. Hassfurther sold 14,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.80, for a total transaction of $2,466,395.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 183,930 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,967,034. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, VP Thomas A. Hassfurther sold 14,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.80, for a total transaction of $2,466,395.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 183,930 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,967,034. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Thomas A. Hassfurther sold 13,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.06, for a total transaction of $2,507,681.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 187,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,975,365.82. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 38,041 shares of company stock worth $6,799,177. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Packaging Co. of America

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FIL Ltd increased its position in Packaging Co. of America by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 2,210,000 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $360,031,000 after acquiring an additional 55,000 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Packaging Co. of America by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,186,729 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $335,772,000 after acquiring an additional 11,536 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in Packaging Co. of America by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,337,507 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $205,389,000 after acquiring an additional 58,444 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Packaging Co. of America by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,182,797 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $192,689,000 after acquiring an additional 27,974 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Packaging Co. of America in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $163,314,000. 89.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Packaging Co. of America

Packaging Corporation of America manufactures and sells containerboard and corrugated packaging products in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Packaging, Paper, and Corporate and Other. The Packaging segment offers various containerboard and corrugated packaging products, such as conventional shipping containers used to protect and transport manufactured goods; multi-color boxes and displays that help to merchandise the packaged product in retail locations; and honeycomb protective packaging products, as well as packaging for meat, fresh fruit and vegetables, processed food, beverages, and other industrial and consumer products.