Shares in Sealed Air fall on 1Q loss

Shares in Sealed Air Corp. fell after the company reported a first-quarter loss and lower revenue on the heels of the $3.2 billion sale of its food hygiene and cleaning business to Bain Capital in March.

The food packaging company lost $43.2 million in the first quarter, or 22 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs of the sale of its Diversey operations to Bain, were 43 cents per share. For the same period last year, the company had net income of $102.4 million, or 51 cents per share.

The results fell short of Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 46 cents per share.

Shares in Sealed Air fell almost 6 percent in midday trading.

The Charlotte, North, Carolina, company posted revenue of $1.03 billion in the period, which also did not meet Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.6 billion.

The company said sales — based on continuing operations that don't include the Diversey operations — rose 3 percent overall and 6 percent in North America.

The company also announced a $1.5 billion share repurchase program and plans $1.1 billion in debt reduction after the Diversey sale closes in September.

Sealed Air expects full-year earnings from continuing operations to be $1.70 per share, with revenue expected to be $4.3 billion.

Sealed Air shares have fallen more than 3 percent since the beginning of the year and more than 7 percent in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated in part by Automated Insights using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on SEE at https://www.zacks.com/ap/SEE

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Keywords: Sealed Air, Earnings Report