Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON) Stock Gets Price Target Reduction from Wells Fargo & Company

Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON) had its price objective trimmed by Wells Fargo & Company from $56.00 to $53.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the industrial products company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on SON. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Sonoco Products from $61.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 5th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Sonoco Products from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Sonoco Products from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, September 11th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Sonoco Products from $68.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 12th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded Sonoco Products from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $60.00 in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Sonoco Products currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $58.89.

Sonoco Products Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NYSE SON opened at $51.07 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.12, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.35. Sonoco Products has a one year low of $38.65 and a one year high of $60.67. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $51.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $52.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.55.

Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 21st. The industrial products company reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by ($0.07). Sonoco Products had a return on equity of 16.50% and a net margin of 8.41%. The business had revenue of $2.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.07 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.92 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Sonoco Products will post 5.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sonoco Products Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.54 per share. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis 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 34.34%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Sonoco Products during the 2nd quarter valued at $657,016,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Sonoco Products by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,931,180 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $212,632,000 after buying an additional 32,810 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in Sonoco Products during the 2nd quarter valued at $204,968,000. Sei Investments Co. grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 66,483 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in Sonoco Products by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,116,918 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $60,414,000 after acquiring an additional 12,185 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.69% of the company’s stock.

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.