Short Interest in Silgan Holdings Inc. (NYSE:SLGN) Declines By 34.7%

Silgan Holdings Inc. (NYSE:SLGN) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,200,000 shares, a decline of 34.7% from the March 15th total of 3,370,000 shares. Approximately 2.5% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 799,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Raymond James upped their target price on Silgan from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Loop Capital boosted their price target on shares of Silgan from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Silgan from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Silgan from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 price objective (up previously from $69.00) on shares of Silgan in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $64.22.

Insider Activity at Silgan

In other news, 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 152,133 shares in the company, valued at $8,096,518.26. This represents a 11.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Adam J. Greenlee sold 125,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.73, for a total value of $6,841,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 227,332 shares in the company, valued at $12,441,880.36. This represents a 35.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.39% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Silgan

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Silgan by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,931,526 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $464,886,000 after acquiring an additional 455,381 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Silgan by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,046,400 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $366,765,000 after acquiring an additional 767,944 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Silgan by 12.8% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,795,781 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $301,670,000 after acquiring an additional 656,923 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Silgan by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,062,013 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $159,377,000 after purchasing an additional 11,836 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Silgan by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,140,028 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $111,388,000 after buying an additional 9,532 shares during the period. 70.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Silgan Stock Performance

Silgan stock traded up $0.33 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $49.33. 647,798 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 650,134. Silgan has a 52 week low of $41.14 and a 52 week high of $58.14. The firm has a market cap of $5.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.81. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $51.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $52.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a current ratio of 0.45.

Silgan (NYSE:SLGN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, analysts expect that Silgan will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Silgan Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 17th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.62%. This is an increase from Silgan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 17th. Silgan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.01%.

Silgan Company 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.