AptarGroup (ATR) To Hike Prices For Beauty Products By 5-10%

AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) recently announced that the company will implement a price hike by 5-10% for its beauty, personal care and home care products in North America. The price hike, which will be effective with shipments beginning on Jan 1, 2019, has been implemented to counter significant cost inflation on raw materials, freight and other inputs.

Notably, AptarGroup witnessed raw-material inflation of about $4 million in its Beauty + Home segment in third-quarter 2018.Moreover, AptarGroup’s Food + Beverage segment witnessed about $2 million cost inflation in the Sep-end quarter, hitting the bottom line. The company expects the inflationary environment to prevail, and raw-material and transportation costs to depress margins.

Nevertheless, AptarGroup’s price adjustments in North America and other regions will help offset these escalating costs. The latest price hikes will be in addition to any price adjustments related to import tariffs.

AptarGroup expects that its core sales will grow in each segment in the ongoing quarter. The company remains committed to execute its growth strategy in order to create long-term value for all stakeholders. Furthermore, it is poised to gain from business-transformation plan, product roll outs and acquisitions.

Share Price Performance

Shares of the company have outperformed the industry, over the past year. The stock has gained around 24% while the industry recorded a loss of around 5% during the same time period.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

AptarGroup carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the same sector include CECO Environmental Corp. (NASDAQ:CECE) , Flowserve Corporation (NYSE:FLS) and Mobile Mini, Inc. (NASDAQ:MINI) . All these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here.

CECO has a long-term earnings growth rate of 15%. The stock has surged around 56% in a year’s time.

Flowserve has a long-term earnings growth rate of 17.3%. The company’s shares have been up 28% during the past year.

Mobile Mini has a long-term earnings growth rate of 14%. Its shares have rallied 21% in the past year.

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