Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE) Downgraded by StockNews.com to Hold

StockNews.com cut shares of Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Monday.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on SEE. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Sealed Air from $44.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Bank of America decreased their target price on Sealed Air from $42.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Sealed Air from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Sealed Air from $39.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, Raymond James upgraded shares of Sealed Air from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $42.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.00.

Sealed Air Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE SEE opened at $33.62 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $35.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.62, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market cap of $4.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.97 and a beta of 1.34. Sealed Air has a 1 year low of $30.87 and a 1 year high of $41.14.

Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The industrial products company reported $0.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. Sealed Air had a return on equity of 74.21% and a net margin of 7.34%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.77 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Sealed Air will post 3.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Sealed Air Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. Sealed Air’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.41%.

Institutional Trading of Sealed Air

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sealed Air by 5.1% during the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 16,199 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $564,000 after buying an additional 788 shares in the last quarter. Choreo LLC acquired a new position in shares of Sealed Air in the 2nd quarter valued at about $338,000. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Sealed Air by 4.8% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 31,877 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,109,000 after purchasing an additional 1,468 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Sealed Air by 5.2% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 553,230 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $19,247,000 after purchasing an additional 27,554 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Sealed Air by 33.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,910,647 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $66,475,000 after buying an additional 479,675 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.40% of the company’s stock.

Sealed Air Company Profile

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.