Brevan Howard Capital Management LP Trims Stock Position in Sealed Air Co. (NYSE:SEE)

Brevan Howard Capital Management LP reduced its position in Sealed Air Co. (NYSE:SEE - Free Report) by 56.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,881 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 14,203 shares during the quarter. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP's holdings in Sealed Air were worth $368,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 worth $620,117,000 after purchasing an additional 2,754,395 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Sealed Air by 9.6% during the fourth 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. raised its stake in shares of 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 raised its stake in shares of Sealed Air by 57.3% during the fourth 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, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Sealed Air by 8.8% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,204,663 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $74,583,000 after purchasing an additional 178,592 shares during the last quarter. 94.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Sealed Air

In related news, Director Henry R. Keizer acquired 1,120 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $30.00 per share, with a total value of $33,600.00. Following the completion of the purchase, 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 purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Mizuho cut their price target on Sealed Air from $39.00 to $32.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Sealed Air from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. StockNews.com raised Sealed Air from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $36.00 price objective on Sealed Air in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Raymond James dropped their price objective on Sealed Air from $42.00 to $36.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $38.00.

Sealed Air Price Performance

Sealed Air stock traded up $0.51 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $32.42. The stock had a trading volume of 1,844,796 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,549,999. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $4.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.92 and a beta of 1.35. Sealed Air Co. has a 1-year low of $22.78 and a 1-year high of $41.14. The stock's fifty day moving average is $28.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.51.

Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The industrial products company reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $1.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.27 billion. Sealed Air had a return on equity of 74.21% and a net margin of 7.34%. Sealed Air's revenue was down 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.78 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Sealed Air Co. will post 3.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sealed Air Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.47%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Sealed Air's payout ratio is currently 39.60%.

Sealed Air 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.