Silgan (NYSE:SLGN) Upgraded to “Neutral” by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Silgan (NYSE:SLGN) from an underweight rating to a neutral rating in a report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has $53.00 price objective on the industrial products company’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $46.00.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Silgan from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Citigroup raised shares of Silgan from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $50.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $57.00.

Silgan Stock Performance

Shares of SLGN traded down $1.49 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $51.20. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 138,305 shares, compared to its average volume of 581,653. Silgan has a 1-year low of $38.11 and a 1-year high of $52.84. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $45.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $45.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33. The stock has a market cap of $5.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.49, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.67.

Silgan (NYSE:SLGN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.43 billion. Silgan had a net margin of 5.24% and a return on equity of 19.42%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.83 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Silgan will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Silgan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.19 per share. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 3rd. Silgan’s payout ratio is 26.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Silgan news, VP B Frederik Prinzen sold 4,093 shares of Silgan stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.84, for a total transaction of $195,809.12. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 4,520 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $216,236.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, VP B Frederik Prinzen sold 4,093 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.84, for a total transaction of $195,809.12. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 4,520 shares in the company, valued at $216,236.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Jay A. Martin sold 21,330 shares of Silgan stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.73, for a total value of $996,750.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 165,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,756,665.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 59,651 shares of company stock valued at $2,804,226 in the last ninety days. 1.39% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Silgan

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SLGN. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Silgan by 5.1% in the second quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,156 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $218,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its stake in Silgan by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 101,639 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,936,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its stake in Silgan by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 6,686 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $303,000 after purchasing an additional 275 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Silgan by 4.6% during the first quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 7,013 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $341,000 after buying an additional 306 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina increased its position in shares of Silgan by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 37,043 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,676,000 after acquiring an additional 360 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.