Van ECK Associates Corp Boosts Stock Holdings in Sealed Air Co. (NYSE:SEE)

Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Sealed Air Co. (NYSE:SEE - Free Report) by 129.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 138,186 shares of the industrial products company's stock after purchasing an additional 77,881 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp owned about 0.09% of Sealed Air worth $5,019,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Sealed Air by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,703,769 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $621,380,000 after purchasing an additional 600,146 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in Sealed Air by 38.2% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 4,114,281 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $143,136,000 after acquiring an additional 1,136,985 shares in the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC grew its stake in 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 valued at $93,014,000 after acquiring an additional 170,846 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Sealed Air by 33.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,910,647 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $66,475,000 after acquiring an additional 479,675 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. raised its position in shares of Sealed Air by 1.4% during the second quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 1,856,020 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $64,571,000 after purchasing an additional 24,940 shares during the period. 94.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Sealed Air Stock Performance

NYSE:SEE traded down $0.17 during trading on Friday, reaching $35.40. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,886,162 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,517,334. Sealed Air Co. has a 12 month low of $30.87 and a 12 month high of $41.14. The firm has a market cap of $5.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.39 and a beta of 1.34. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $35.35 and a 200-day moving average of $35.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.81, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 1.30.

Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The industrial products company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.66 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. Sealed Air had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 85.65%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.77 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Sealed Air Co. will post 2.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sealed Air Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.26%. Sealed Air's payout ratio is 29.41%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on SEE. StockNews.com lowered shares of Sealed Air from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Sealed Air in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an "equal weight" rating and a $39.00 target price for the company. Truist Financial lowered their target price on shares of Sealed Air from $44.00 to $41.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Sealed Air from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and cut their price target for the company from $47.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Raymond James raised Sealed Air from a "market perform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and set a $42.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sealed Air has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $41.00.

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.