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

Raymond James upgraded shares of Silgan (NYSE:SLGN) from an outperform rating to a strong-buy rating in a report issued on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $60.00 price objective on the industrial products company’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $65.00.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on SLGN. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on Silgan from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Silgan from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Silgan from $58.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Silgan from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on Silgan from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $62.78.

Silgan Stock Performance

NYSE:SLGN opened at $51.75 on Tuesday. Silgan has a twelve month low of $41.14 and a twelve month high of $58.14. The company has a market capitalization of $5.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a current ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $50.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $52.41.

Silgan (NYSE:SLGN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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, research analysts expect that Silgan will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Silgan Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 17th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This is a positive change from Silgan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 17th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.55%. Silgan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.01%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Trading of Silgan

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of SLGN. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new position in Silgan in the third quarter valued at about $2,975,000. Ritholtz Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Silgan during the fourth quarter worth approximately $620,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Silgan in the fourth quarter worth $1,142,000. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new stake in Silgan in the fourth quarter valued at $2,563,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. bought a new position in Silgan during the 3rd quarter valued at $223,000. 70.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.