Swiss National Bank Increases Position in Sealed Air Co. (NYSE:SEE)

Swiss National Bank raised its stake in shares of Sealed Air Co. (NYSE:SEE) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 286,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,300 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned 0.20% of Sealed Air worth $9,692,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its stake in Sealed Air by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 18,775 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $635,000 after purchasing an additional 690 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its stake in Sealed Air by 189.4% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 12,825 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $434,000 after purchasing an additional 8,393 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its stake in Sealed Air by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 35,294 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,194,000 after purchasing an additional 3,205 shares during the period. Amundi raised its stake in Sealed Air by 131.6% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 76,479 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,576,000 after purchasing an additional 43,458 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Sealed Air during the fourth quarter worth approximately $16,841,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on SEE shares. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Sealed Air from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Sealed Air from $39.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Sealed Air from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Sealed Air from $45.00 to $42.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Sealed Air from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $40.25.

Sealed Air Stock Performance

Sealed Air stock opened at $29.08 on Friday. Sealed Air Co. has a 12-month low of $28.67 and a 12-month high of $41.14. The company has a market capitalization of $4.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.69 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.62, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $33.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $34.53.

Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The industrial products company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.08. Sealed Air had a net margin of 7.34% and a return on equity of 74.21%. The firm had revenue of $1.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.36 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.88 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Sealed Air Co. will post 3.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sealed Air Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Sealed Air’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.20%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Henry R. Keizer acquired 1,120 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $30.00 per share, with a total value of $33,600.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 35,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,050,000. The trade was a 3.31 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.