Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of food and product safety company Sealed Air Corp (SEE -0.57%) jumped as much as 11.5% today after reporting better than expected earnings.
So what: Revenue actually fell 2% in the quarter to $1.97 billion, but was largely in-line with what Wall Street expected. But margins improved by 90 basis points from a year ago and that caused earnings to more than double to $66.3 million, or $0.31 per share. On an adjusted basis, earnings were $0.59 per share, easily topping estimates of $0.47.
Now what: Sealed Air is benefiting, in part, from low input costs, which has helped overcome currency challenges. For 2015, management is expecting sales to fall to $7.4 billion from $7.75 billion in 2014, blamed partly on a 7% negative impact in currency translation. But like Q4, earnings are expected to rise around 12%-17% to $2.08 to $2.18 per share.
That's solid improvement but for a slow to no growth business I think 21 times earnings is too much for investors to pay, so I'll sit out this move today.
