Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE) Upgraded to Buy at Truist Financial

Truist Financial upgraded shares of Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $44.00 price objective on the industrial products company’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $39.00.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on SEE. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Sealed Air from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Sealed Air from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and raised their price target for the company from $35.00 to $43.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Sealed Air in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a peer perform rating on the stock. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $44.18.

Sealed Air Price Performance

Sealed Air stock opened at $33.37 on Monday. Sealed Air has a one year low of $28.50 and a one year high of $48.44. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $35.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $34.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.21, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.14, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 1.28.

Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The industrial products company reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.26. Sealed Air had a return on equity of 107.48% and a net margin of 6.22%. The firm had revenue of $1.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.36 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.99 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Sealed Air will post 2.85 EPS for the current year.

Sealed Air Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.40%. Sealed Air’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.90%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in Sealed Air by 13.7% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 24,679,011 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,133,013,000 after purchasing an additional 2,965,808 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Sealed Air by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,853,598 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $553,809,000 after purchasing an additional 92,114 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Sealed Air by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,191,143 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $247,646,000 after purchasing an additional 75,359 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its holdings in 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 valued at $195,720,000 after purchasing an additional 5,138,700 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Sealed Air by 70.1% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,238,340 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $172,132,000 after acquiring an additional 2,159,143 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.