Andreas Halvorsen (Trades, Portfolio) is a founding partner of Viking Global Investors LP and currently serves as its CIO. Viking was formed in 1999 and is based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Viking manages two hedge funds invested in equities worldwide. Since starting his firm in 1999, his Viking Global Equities III fund has gained 22% on average per year until March 2009. His largest down period was from September 2001 to March of 2002, when his portfolio was down about 12%.
The portfolio is composed of 67 stocks, and 27 of them are new stocks. The total value of the portfolio is $21,780 Mil with 29% Q/Q turnover.
According to GuruFocus Real Time Picks, the investor increased his stake in Sealed Air Corp (SEE) by 274.38%, reaching a total of 12,098,322 owned shares (1.90% of his portfolio or 5.76% of SEE’s Outstanding Shares). Mr. Halvorsen started to buy SEE shares on 2014Q4 and with this buy, Mr. Halvorsen confirms himself as the main Guru holding SEE, followed by Jean-Marie Eveillard who holds 2.09% of Shares Outstanding.
Halvorsen is holding SEE at an average price of $37.59 per share with an average gain of 23.2%
Sealed Air Corp was founded in 1960. The Company is engaged in food safety and security, facility hygiene and product protection. It serves end markets including food and beverage processing, food service, retail, healthcare and industrial, and commercial and consumer applications. The Company operates in different regions such as Africa, Asia "excluding Japan and South Korea", Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America.
The stock is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 38.30 that is ranked higher than 60% of SEE’s competitors. The average P/E of SEE’s Industry is 33.70.
The stock is -4.42% from its 52 Weeks High and +55.11% from its 52 Weeks Low and during the last 12 months the price rose by +51%.
The Company has a Profitability & Growth of 7/10 with positive returns (ROA 18.99%, ROE 3.03% and ROC 36.59%). These ratios are at average level of the Global Packaging & Containers Industry. ROA is few weak, ranked higher than just 60% of competitors, while ROE and ROC is ranked higher than 90% of other industries of the same sector.
Over the last 5 years, the company's revenue grew by 10.60% and Book Value dropped by 2.60%. Over the last 12 months Revenue and EBITDA are almost flat while Free Cash Flow (-168%) and Book Value (-23.60%) are not giving good news to balance sheet.
Duing the announcement of fourth quarter and full year results, Jerome Peribere, the President and CEO of Sealed Air Corporation said:
“2014 was a very strong year for Sealed Air. We exceeded our financial objectives in the fourth quarter and for the full year. We delivered 8% adjusted EBITDA growth in 2014 and expanded margins by 90 basis points despite currency headwinds. We had favorable price mix in every region and in every division in the quarter and for the full year. We improved the health of our balance sheet and generated over $600 million in free cash flow. We continued on our innovation path including for example Darfresh entre, Instapak Simple, and a new TASKI XP platform. We also announced the relocation of our headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina and launched a new website.”
Then, talking about 2015 outlooks he remarked some issues to handle
“Based on foreign exchange rates today, we are assuming unfavorable currency translation of approximately $550 million in sales and $80 million on EBITDA in 2015. And while we anticipate as reported sales in 2015 to be down approximately 5% compared to 2014, we expect to grow approximately 2.5% in constant currency and are confident that we will deliver adjusted EBITDA growth and margin expansion. EBITDA growth and margin expansion will be driven not only by favorable input cost but also our continued focus on value adding selling, operational disciplines, and earnings quality improvement efforts.”
