Sonoco Products Company (SON) – What Are Brokerages Thinking About This Stock?

Sonoco Products Company (NYSE:SON) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $57.38.

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Sonoco Products in a research report on Monday, October 26th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Sonoco Products from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 22nd. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Sonoco Products from $62.00 to $59.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. Bank of America cut 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, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Sonoco Products from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Friday, October 30th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SON. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Sonoco Products during the second quarter valued at $657,016,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Sonoco Products by 0.8% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,931,180 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $212,632,000 after purchasing an additional 32,810 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in Sonoco Products during the second quarter valued at $204,968,000. Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in shares of Sonoco Products by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,497,108 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $80,979,000 after buying an additional 66,483 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Sonoco Products in the 2nd quarter worth $60,793,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.69% of the company’s stock.

Sonoco Products Stock Performance

NYSE:SON opened at $51.49 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $50.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $52.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.09 billion, a P/E ratio of -22.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 0.37. Sonoco Products has a 12-month low of $39.27 and a 12-month high of $60.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The industrial products company reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by ($0.07). Sonoco Products had a positive return on equity of 16.40% and a negative net margin of 3.08%. The business had revenue of $2.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.92 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Sonoco Products will post 5.41 EPS 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 dividend yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 10th. Sonoco Products’s dividend payout ratio is -93.91%.

About Sonoco Products

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.