Sonoco Products Company $SON Stock: ProShare Advisors LLC Grows Holdings

ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in Sonoco Products Company (NYSE:SON) by 6.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 495,846 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 28,281 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Sonoco Products were worth $24,207,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State of Wyoming raised its stake in shares of Sonoco Products by 25.6% in the 3rd quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 10,525 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $514,000 after buying an additional 2,147 shares in the last quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al grew its holdings in Sonoco Products by 76.3% during the third quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al now owns 49,000 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,392,000 after acquiring an additional 21,200 shares during the period. Choreo LLC grew its holdings in Sonoco Products by 18.5% during the third quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 11,643 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $568,000 after acquiring an additional 1,815 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its position in Sonoco Products by 1.8% in the third quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 27,829 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,359,000 after acquiring an additional 484 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Access Investment Management LLC raised its position in Sonoco Products by 0.8% in the third quarter. Access Investment Management LLC now owns 294,509 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $14,378,000 after acquiring an additional 2,300 shares in the last quarter. 77.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SON has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Sonoco Products in a report on Monday, October 26th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Sonoco Products from $62.00 to $59.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Sonoco Products from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Friday. Bank of America lowered shares of Sonoco Products from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $69.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Sonoco Products from $63.00 to $59.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $57.38.

Sonoco Products Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SON opened at $50.23 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -21.84, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.35. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $50.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $52.40. Sonoco Products Company has a 52-week low of $39.27 and a 52-week high of $60.67.

Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The industrial products company reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.74 by ($0.07). Sonoco Products had a negative net margin of 3.08% and a positive return on equity of 16.40%. The company had revenue of $2.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.92 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Sonoco Products Company will post 5.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sonoco Products Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.54 per share. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 10th. Sonoco Products’s payout ratio is presently -93.91%.

Sonoco Products Company Profile

Sonoco Products Company is a global packaging company headquartered in Hartsville, South Carolina. Founded in 1899 as the Southern Novelty Company, it has developed from a producer of paper cones for the textile industry into a diversified provider of packaging solutions serving consumer, industrial and commercial customers.

The company manufactures a broad range of products, including composite cans and tubes, paperboard packaging, flexible packaging, thermoformed packaging, rigid plastic containers, protective packaging and packaging components.