Macquarie cut shares of KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. (NYSE:KS) from a neutral rating to an underperform rating in a research note released on Monday, The Fly reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on KS. RBC Capital restated an outperform rating and issued a $27.00 price objective on shares of KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. in a research report on Friday, October 30th. Dundee Securities lowered KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 6th. Zacks Investment Research lowered KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 29th. Finally, Deutsche Bank restated a buy rating and issued a $32.00 price objective on shares of KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. in a research report on Wednesday, December 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. The stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $25.33.

In other news, Director John Chapman sold 150,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.94, for a total transaction of $3,291,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 511,673 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,226,105.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

A number of hedge funds and institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of KS. Beacon Capital Management purchased a new position in KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $0. Assetmark purchased a new position in KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. during the third quarter valued at approximately $0. J. Goldman & Company purchased a new position in KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. during the third quarter valued at approximately $19,000. Russell Frank Co purchased a new position in KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,066,000. Finally, HL Financial Services LLC increased its position in KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. by 28.1% in the fourth quarter. HL Financial Services LLC now owns 52,039 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,176,000 after buying an additional 11,427 shares in the last quarter.

Shares of KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. (NYSE:KS) traded down 1.44% during midday trading on Monday, reaching $13.71. 1,571,153 shares of the company traded hands. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.32 billion and a PE ratio of 10.39. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $20.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.31. KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. has a 1-year low of $13.46 and a 1-year high of $35.88.

KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. (NYSE:KS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.11. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. The firm earned $807.56 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $867.45 million. KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp.’s quarterly revenue was up 35.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. will post $1.60 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 30th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 28th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.92%.

KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation is engaged in manufacture and sale of containerboard, corrugated products and specialty paper for industrial and consumer markets. Containerboard, consisting of linerboard and corrugated medium, is used to manufacture corrugated containers for packaging products. The Company produces three general categories of kraft paper: Multiwall paper; Specialty products and Lightweight paper. Specialty products are also used to produce shingle wrap, end caps, roll wrap, pet food, cement and chemicals, grocery bags and dunnage bags. The Company’s specialty paper products are manufactured for a variety of converters, including laminators, coaters, insulation manufacturers, agricultural product processors and food product packaging producers. As of December 31, 2014, the Company operated 21 corrugated products manufacturing plants. The Company also has multi-color printing capabilities to make graphics boxes and display.

12 Month Chart for NYSE:KS

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