Silgan (NYSE:SLGN) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Raymond James

Raymond James upgraded shares of Silgan (NYSE:SLGN - Free Report) from an outperform rating to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Tuesday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has $60.00 price target on the industrial products company's stock, down from their prior price target of $65.00.

SLGN has been the topic of a number of other reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Silgan from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Silgan from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Silgan from $58.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Silgan from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Loop Capital increased their price objective on Silgan from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $62.78.

Silgan Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:SLGN traded down $0.21 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $51.48. The company's stock had a trading volume of 696,804 shares, compared to its average volume of 657,867. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a current ratio of 0.45. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $50.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $52.42. The company has a market capitalization of $5.50 billion, a PE ratio of 19.95, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.81. Silgan has a fifty-two week low of $41.14 and a fifty-two week high of $58.14.

Silgan (NYSE:SLGN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.03. Silgan had a return on equity of 19.70% and a net margin of 4.72%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Silgan will post 4.11 EPS for the current year.

Silgan Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 17th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 17th. This is a boost from Silgan's previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.55%. Silgan's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.01%.

Insider Transactions at Silgan

In related news, CEO Adam J. Greenlee sold 125,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.73, for a total transaction of $6,841,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 227,332 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,441,880.36. This trade represents a 35.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Robert B. Lewis sold 20,000 shares of Silgan stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.22, for a total transaction of $1,064,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 152,133 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,096,518.26. This trade represents a 11.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.39% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Silgan

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SLGN. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Silgan by 4.7% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,595,520 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $133,150,000 after buying an additional 115,878 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Silgan in the first quarter valued at $51,000. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Silgan by 0.8% in the first quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 123,252 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $6,301,000 after buying an additional 1,009 shares during the period. Ausbil Investment Management Ltd raised its position in Silgan by 56.5% during the first quarter. Ausbil Investment Management Ltd now owns 19,689 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,007,000 after buying an additional 7,110 shares during the period. Finally, Continuum Advisory LLC boosted its position in Silgan by 2,754.3% during the 1st quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 1,313 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 1,267 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.25% of the company's stock.

About Silgan

Silgan Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells rigid packaging solutions for consumer goods products in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Dispensing and Specialty Closures, Metal Containers, and Custom Containers. The Dispensing and Specialty Closures segment offers a range of metal and plastic closures, and dispensing systems for food, beverage, health care, garden, home, personal care, beauty products, and hard surface cleaning products, as well as capping/sealing equipment and detection systems.