Prudential Financial Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Silgan Holdings Inc. (NYSE:SLGN)

Prudential Financial Inc. reduced its stake in Silgan Holdings Inc. (NYSE:SLGN) by 51.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 22,831 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 24,312 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Silgan were worth $1,188,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Silgan by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,931,526 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $464,886,000 after buying an additional 455,381 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Silgan by 0.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,497,683 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $131,128,000 after acquiring an additional 14,109 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Silgan by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,140,028 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $111,388,000 after acquiring an additional 9,532 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Silgan by 11.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,495,033 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $78,509,000 after purchasing an additional 157,160 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Silgan by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 921,651 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $47,972,000 after purchasing an additional 106,183 shares during the last quarter. 70.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on SLGN shares. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Silgan from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Silgan from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Silgan from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted 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. Finally, Loop Capital upped their price target on shares of Silgan from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Silgan has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $64.22.

Silgan Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:SLGN opened at $47.88 on Monday. 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 company has a market cap of $5.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.81. Silgan Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $41.14 and a 12 month high of $58.14. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $52.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $52.75.

Silgan (NYSE:SLGN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.85 earnings per share 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, equities analysts anticipate that Silgan Holdings Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current year.

Silgan Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This is an increase from Silgan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 17th. Silgan’s payout ratio is presently 31.01%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Adam J. Greenlee sold 125,000 shares of Silgan stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $12,441,880.36. The trade was a 35.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Robert B. Lewis sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.22, for a total value of $1,064,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 152,133 shares of the company’s stock, 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.

Silgan Profile

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.