Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE) Lifted to “Strong-Buy” at Raymond James

Raymond James upgraded shares of Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE) from a market perform rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. They currently have $42.00 target price on the industrial products company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Sealed Air from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Sealed Air from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Sealed Air from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $43.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Sealed Air from $44.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Sealed Air from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the company from $47.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.00.

Sealed Air Stock Performance

Shares of SEE stock opened at $37.12 on Thursday. Sealed Air has a 12 month low of $28.50 and a 12 month high of $41.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.91, a P/E/G ratio of 8.98 and a beta of 1.34. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $34.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $35.31.

Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The industrial products company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.19. Sealed Air had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 85.65%. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.80 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Sealed Air will post 2.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sealed Air Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.16%. Sealed Air’s payout ratio is currently 32.13%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sealed Air

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Sealed Air by 3.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,703,769 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $621,380,000 after purchasing an additional 600,146 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Sealed Air by 38.2% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 4,114,281 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $143,136,000 after acquiring an additional 1,136,985 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Sealed Air by 7.3% during the first quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,500,378 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $93,014,000 after acquiring an additional 170,846 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Sealed Air by 33.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,910,647 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $66,475,000 after acquiring an additional 479,675 shares during the period. Finally, Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. increased its stake in shares of Sealed Air by 1.4% during the second quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 1,856,020 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $64,571,000 after acquiring an additional 24,940 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.40% of the company’s stock.

About Sealed Air

Sealed Air Corporation provides packaging solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. It operates through two segments, Food and Protective. The Food segment offers integrated packaging materials and automation equipment solutions to provide food safety, shelf life extension, reduce food waste, automate processes, and optimize total cost for food processors in the fresh red meat, smoked and processed meats, poultry, seafood, plant-based, fluids and liquids and cheese markets under the CRYOVAC, CRYOVAC Grip & Tear, CRYOVAC Darfresh, LIQUIBOX, Simple Steps, and Optidure brands.