Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.52 Per Share

Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 17th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.52 per share by the industrial products company on Monday, June 10th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.72%. This is a positive change from Sonoco Products’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51.

Sonoco Products has increased its dividend payment by an average of 5.5% per year over the last three years.

Sonoco Products Stock Performance

Sonoco Products stock traded down $0.29 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $55.87. 241,289 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 431,979. The firm has a market cap of $5.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.70, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.76, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $56.95 and a 200 day moving average of $55.80. Sonoco Products has a 12 month low of $49.98 and a 12 month high of $63.74.

Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by ($0.02). Sonoco Products had a return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 7.00%. The company had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.61 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.27 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Sonoco Products will post 5.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Sonoco Products news, VP Adam Wood sold 537 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.04, for a total transaction of $30,630.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 28,273 shares in the company, valued at $1,612,691.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, VP Adam Wood sold 537 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.04, for a total value of $30,630.48. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 28,273 shares in the company, valued at $1,612,691.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Jeffrey S. Tomaszewski sold 10,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.53, for a total value of $604,065.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $774,123.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 13,076 shares of company stock worth $749,002 over the last three months. 0.51% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sonoco Products

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in Sonoco Products by 0.7% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 11,631,791 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $709,539,000 after acquiring an additional 76,945 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Sonoco Products by 1.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,740,557 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $609,312,000 after acquiring an additional 179,779 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Sonoco Products by 13.4% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,240,829 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $515,546,000 after acquiring an additional 972,157 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in Sonoco Products by 1.3% in the second quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,566,627 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $151,481,000 after acquiring an additional 32,230 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in Sonoco Products by 2.6% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,135,507 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $130,266,000 after buying an additional 54,808 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SON has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Sonoco Products from $58.00 to $56.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Sonoco Products from $66.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, TheStreet lowered shares of Sonoco Products from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $63.00.

About Sonoco Products

Sonoco Products Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells various engineered and sustainable packaging products in North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company operates Consumer Packaging and Industrial Paper Packaging segments. The Consumer Packaging segment offers round and shaped rigid paper, steel, and plastic containers; metal and peelable membrane ends, closures, and components; thermoformed plastic trays and enclosures; and high-barrier flexible packaging products.