Ardagh Metal Packaging (NYSE:AMBP) and Ranpak (NYSE:PACK) Critical Review

Ranpak (NYSE:PACK) and Ardagh Metal Packaging (NYSE:AMBP) are both materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Ranpak and Ardagh Metal Packaging, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ranpak	1	0	3	0	2.50
Ardagh Metal Packaging	0	6	1	0	2.14

Ranpak presently has a consensus price target of $7.00, suggesting a potential upside of 56.60%. Ardagh Metal Packaging has a consensus price target of $4.92, suggesting a potential downside of 2.54%. Given Ranpak’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Ranpak is more favorable than Ardagh Metal Packaging.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ranpak and Ardagh Metal Packaging”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ranpak	$395.00 million	0.97	-$38.30 million	($0.44)	-10.16
Ardagh Metal Packaging	$5.50 billion	0.55	$11.00 million	$0.06	84.08

Ardagh Metal Packaging has higher revenue and earnings than Ranpak. Ranpak is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ardagh Metal Packaging, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

85.9% of Ranpak shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 16.9% of Ardagh Metal Packaging shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.8% of Ranpak shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of Ardagh Metal Packaging shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Ranpak has a beta of 3.1, suggesting that its share price is 210% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ardagh Metal Packaging has a beta of 0.51, suggesting that its share price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Ranpak and Ardagh Metal Packaging’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ranpak	-9.09%	-7.18%	-3.41%
Ardagh Metal Packaging	0.68%	-27.93%	3.09%

Summary

Ranpak beats Ardagh Metal Packaging on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ranpak

Ranpak Holdings Corp., together with its subsidiaries, provides product protection solutions and end-of-line automation solutions for e-commerce and industrial supply chains in North America, Europe, and Asia. The company offers protective packaging solutions, such as void-fill protective systems that convert paper to fill empty spaces in secondary packages and protect objects under the FillPak brand; cushioning protective systems, which convert paper into cushioning pads under the PadPak brand; and wrapping protective systems that create pads or paper mesh to wrap and protect fragile items, as well as to line boxes and provide separation when shipping various objects under the WrapPak, Geami, and ReadyRoll brands, as well as cold chain products, which are used to provide insulation for goods. It also offers end-of-line packaging automation products, which help end users automate the void filling and box closure processes after product packing is complete. The company sells its products to end users primarily through a distributor network, and directly to select end-users. Ranpak Holdings Corp. was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Concord Township, Ohio.

About Ardagh Metal Packaging

Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A., 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. The company serves beverage producers. Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. is based in Luxembourg, Luxembourg. Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. is a subsidiary of Ardagh Group S.A.