Sealed Air Q4 Profit Surges, Sees 2015 Earnings Above View - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Packaging company Sealed Air Corp.'s (SEE) fourth-quarter net earnings available to common stockholders more than doubled to $66.3 million or $0.31 per share from $29.0 million or $0.13 per share in the same period last year.

Excluding certain items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $125.7 million or $0.59 per share, compared to $85.5 million or $0.39 per share in the year-ago period. On average, 12 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.47 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

However, quarterly net sales declined 1.9 percent to $1.97 billion from $2.01 billion a year ago. However, sales increased 3.3 percent in constant currency. Analysts were looking for revenues of $1.98 billion.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2015, Sealed Air forecast adjusted earnings in a range of $2.08 to $2.18 per share, representing an estimated increase of 12 percent to 17 percent compared with 2014 adjusted earnings of $1.86 per share.

The company forecast full-year net sales of about $7.4 billion, which assumes an unfavorable impact of about 7 percent from foreign currency translation. Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, on a constant currency basis, the company expects net sales to increase about 2.5 percent.

Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $2.06 per share for the year on revenues of $7.64 billion.