Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. (NYSE:AMBP) Short Interest Update

Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. (NYSE:AMBP) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,480,000 shares, a growth of 12.2% from the November 30th total of 2,210,000 shares. Currently, 1.8% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,390,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.8 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging by 195.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 196,979 shares of the company’s stock worth $743,000 after buying an additional 130,264 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging by 0.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,784,882 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,729,000 after purchasing an additional 11,963 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging in the third quarter valued at approximately $389,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Ardagh Metal Packaging by 99.0% during the third quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 49,916 shares of the company’s stock worth $188,000 after buying an additional 24,832 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in Ardagh Metal Packaging by 99.5% during the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 284,375 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,072,000 after acquiring an additional 141,850 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 16.93% of the company’s stock.

Ardagh Metal Packaging Price Performance

Shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging stock traded up $0.05 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $3.01. The company had a trading volume of 812,454 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,362,216. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 124.21. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $3.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $3.56. Ardagh Metal Packaging has a 1-year low of $2.94 and a 1-year high of $4.26. The company has a market capitalization of $1.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -25.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.61.

Ardagh Metal Packaging (NYSE:AMBP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.08 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.01. Ardagh Metal Packaging had a positive return on equity of 1,760.00% and a negative net margin of 0.99%. The business had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.06 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ardagh Metal Packaging will post 0.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Ardagh Metal Packaging Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 13.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 5th. Ardagh Metal Packaging’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -333.33%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AMBP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging from $4.00 to $4.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Ardagh Metal Packaging from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $4.25 to $5.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Bank of America lowered shares of Ardagh Metal Packaging from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $4.90 to $4.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ardagh Metal Packaging currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $3.92.

About Ardagh Metal Packaging

Ardagh Metal Packaging SA, 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.