Sealed Air Co. (NYSE:SEE) Short Interest Up 31.0% in March

Sealed Air Co. (NYSE:SEE) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,980,000 shares, an increase of 31.0% from the February 28th total of 6,090,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,550,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.1 days. Approximately 5.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Sealed Air Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of Sealed Air stock traded up $0.02 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $29.07. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,084,574 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,530,032. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.33. Sealed Air has a 1-year low of $28.37 and a 1-year high of $41.14. The company has a market cap of $4.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.69 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.62.

Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The industrial products company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.08. Sealed Air had a return on equity of 74.21% and a net margin of 7.34%. The business had revenue of $1.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.36 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.88 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Sealed Air will post 3.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Sealed Air Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.75%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Sealed Air’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.20%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SEE has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Sealed Air from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Sealed Air from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Sealed Air from $45.00 to $42.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Truist Financial increased their target price on Sealed Air from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group boosted 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. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $40.25.

Insider Activity

In other Sealed Air news, Director Henry R. Keizer bought 1,120 shares of Sealed Air stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $30.00 per share, for a total transaction of $33,600.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 35,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,050,000. This represents a 3.31 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Sealed Air

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SEE. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Sealed Air by 17.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,330,381 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $620,117,000 after purchasing an additional 2,754,395 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Sealed Air by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,316,192 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $416,657,000 after purchasing an additional 1,081,848 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Sealed Air by 69.2% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,788,839 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $128,176,000 after purchasing an additional 1,549,184 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its position in shares of Sealed Air by 57.3% during the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,325,696 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $78,678,000 after purchasing an additional 846,882 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Sealed Air by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,300,809 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $83,542,000 after acquiring an additional 12,559 shares during the period. 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.