Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) Lowered to Strong Sell Rating by Zacks Research

Zacks Research cut shares of Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research note released on Tuesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on SW. Truist Financial decreased their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Monday, September 15th. They set a “buy” rating and a $60.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $55.30.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Up 0.6%

NYSE:SW traded up $0.20 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $33.87. 561,288 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,062,470. Smurfit Westrock has a one year low of $33.19 and a one year high of $56.99. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.24. The company has a market cap of $17.69 billion, a PE ratio of 23.69 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.68 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $8 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.89 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.21% and a net margin of 2.40%.Smurfit Westrock’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Smurfit Westrock will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 18th. Investors of record on Friday, November 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.4308 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 14th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.1%. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is presently 120.28%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the first quarter valued at $1,051,299,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the second quarter worth approximately $749,735,000. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd grew its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% during the 2nd quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 18,400,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $793,978,000 after buying an additional 8,286,205 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 272.0% during the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 11,240,153 shares of the company’s stock worth $478,493,000 after purchasing an additional 8,218,351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 94.4% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 11,353,140 shares of the company’s stock worth $482,917,000 after purchasing an additional 5,511,887 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

About Smurfit Westrock

Smurfit Westrock Plc, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, distributes, and sells containerboard, corrugated containers, and other paper-based packaging products in Ireland and internationally. The company produces containerboard that it converts into corrugated containers or sells to third parties, as well as produces other types of paper, such as consumer packaging board, sack paper, graphic paper, solid board and graphic board, and other paper-based packaging products, such as consumer packaging, solid board packaging, paper sacks, and other packaging products, including bag-in-box.