Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE) Shares Gap Down to $35.56

Sealed Air Co. (NYSE:SEE) shares gapped down prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $35.56, but opened at $34.09. Sealed Air shares last traded at $32.53, with a volume of 456,408 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $44.00 target price on shares of Sealed Air in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Sealed Air from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus assumed coverage on shares of Sealed Air in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. They set a “buy” rating and a $47.00 target price on the stock. Mizuho upgraded shares of Sealed Air from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $36.00 to $50.00 in a report on Thursday, June 6th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Sealed Air from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Sealed Air currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $42.60.

Sealed Air Trading Down 8.3 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.49, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $36.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.75. The company has a market cap of $4.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.08, a PEG ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 1.35.

Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The industrial products company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. Sealed Air had a return on equity of 94.93% and a net margin of 6.61%. The business’s revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.80 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Sealed Air Co. will post 2.86 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, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. Sealed Air’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.13%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sealed Air

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Sealed Air by 3.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,703,769 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $621,380,000 after buying an additional 600,146 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Sealed Air by 2,549.6% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 5,340,247 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $195,720,000 after acquiring an additional 5,138,700 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Sealed Air by 7.3% in the first quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,500,378 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $93,014,000 after acquiring an additional 170,846 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Sealed Air in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $86,410,000. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Sealed Air in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $52,968,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.