Avery Dennison Hits 52-Week High: Time To Buy The Stock?

Shares of Avery Dennison Corporation (NYSE:AVY) scaled a new 52-week high of $76.75 on May 12, before eventually closing the day’s trading at $76.37. The stock price appreciation came on the back of strong first-quarter results as well as an upbeat guidance.

This Pasadena, CA-based manufacturer of pressure-sensitive materials has a market cap of $6.81 billion. Average volume of shares traded over the last three months was approximately 894K. The stock flaunts a year-to-date return of 20.97%. The company has an impressive earnings history, having outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the four trailing quarters with an average positive surprise of 6.61%.

Key Drivers

Avery Dennison’s shares have been on an uptrend ever since the company reported upbeat results for the first quarter of 2016 on Apr 27. Adjusted earnings came in at 94 cents per share, up 16% from 81 cents earned in the year-ago quarter. Both its core businesses delivered solid organic sales growth and significant margin expansion, which resulted in the mid-teens growth in adjusted earnings.

Avery Dennison raised its guidance for 2016 adjusted earnings per share to the range of $3.75–$3.90 from its previous projection of $3.65–$3.85, in expectation of some relief from currency translation headwinds, along with its robust operating performance in the first quarter. Including one-time items, earnings are envisioned in the band of $3.25–$3.40 per share.

Avery Dennison stands to gain from continued deployment of lean and six sigma, ongoing innovation and product reengineering, and investments in automation. Further, consistent focus on productivity, acquisitions and capital discipline will help in delivering solid returns to shareholders. Moreover, the company’s share repurchase activities, dividend hikes and restructuring actions are expected to drive growth in the near future.

At present, Avery Dennison has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Other Stocks to Consider

A few other stocks worth considering in the sector include Altra Industrial Motion Corp. (NASDAQ:AIMC) , Berry Plastics Group, Inc. (NYSE:BERY) and Crown Holdings Inc. (NYSE:CCK) . All these stocks carry the same rank as Avery Dennison.



CROWN HLDGS INC (CCK): Free Stock Analysis Report

ALTRA INDUS MOT (AIMC): Free Stock Analysis Report

AVERY DENNISON (AVY): Free Stock Analysis Report

BERRY PLASTICS (BERY): Free Stock Analysis Report

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