AptarGroup (NYSE:ATR) & Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE) Critical Review

AptarGroup (NYSE:ATR) and Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE) are both mid-cap industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares AptarGroup and Sealed Air’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AptarGroup	10.84%	15.39%	8.60%
Sealed Air	5.46%	60.61%	6.66%

Dividends

AptarGroup pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Sealed Air pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. AptarGroup pays out 31.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Sealed Air pays out 40.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. AptarGroup has increased its dividend for 31 consecutive years.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares AptarGroup and Sealed Air”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AptarGroup	$3.58 billion	2.59	$374.54 million	$5.81	24.25
Sealed Air	$5.39 billion	0.80	$264.70 million	$1.98	14.80

AptarGroup has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Sealed Air. Sealed Air is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AptarGroup, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

AptarGroup has a beta of 0.57, indicating that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sealed Air has a beta of 1.33, indicating that its share price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for AptarGroup and Sealed Air, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AptarGroup	0	1	4	1	3.00
Sealed Air	0	3	5	1	2.78

AptarGroup currently has a consensus price target of $174.60, indicating a potential upside of 23.91%. Sealed Air has a consensus price target of $38.2727, indicating a potential upside of 30.62%. Given Sealed Air’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Sealed Air is more favorable than AptarGroup.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

88.5% of AptarGroup shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.4% of Sealed Air shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of AptarGroup shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Sealed Air shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

AptarGroup beats Sealed Air on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AptarGroup

AptarGroup, Inc. designs and manufactures a range of drug delivery, consumer product dispensing, and active material science solutions and services for the pharmaceutical, beauty, personal care, home care, and food and beverage markets. The company operates through Aptar Pharma, Aptar Beauty, and Aptar Closures segments. It also provides pumps for nasal allergy treatments; and metered dose inhaler valves for respiratory ailments, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases; elastomer for injectable primary packaging components; and active material science solutions. In addition, the company offers dispensing pumps, closures, elastomeric components, and aerosol valves to the digital health solutions. It primarily sells its products and services in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America. AptarGroup, Inc. was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Crystal Lake, Illinois.

About Sealed Air

Sealed Air Corporation provides packaging solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. It operates through two segments, Food and Protective. The Food segment offers integrated packaging materials and automation equipment solutions to provide food safety, shelf life extension, reduce food waste, automate processes, and optimize total cost for food processors in the fresh red meat, smoked and processed meats, poultry, seafood, plant-based, fluids and liquids and cheese markets under the CRYOVAC, CRYOVAC Grip & Tear, CRYOVAC Darfresh, LIQUIBOX, Simple Steps, and Optidure brands. This segment sells its solutions directly to customers through its sales, marketing, and customer service personnel. The Protective segment provides shrink films, bagging systems, foam, inflatable, and suspension and retention packaging solutions to protect goods to e-commerce, consumer goods, pharmaceutical and medical devices, and industrial manufacturing markets under the SEALED AIR, BUBBLE WRAP, AUTOBAG, Instapak, and Korrvu brands. This segment sells its solutions through supply distributors, as well as directly to fabricators, original equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers, logistics partners, and e-commerce/fulfillment operations. The company was incorporated in 1960 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.