Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $56.60.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on SW. Truist Financial set a $60.00 target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Zacks Research upgraded Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 9th. Argus cut their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Down 2.0%

Shares of NYSE:SW opened at $36.20 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $44.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.22 and a beta of 1.06. Smurfit Westrock has a 1 year low of $32.73 and a 1 year high of $52.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.48.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.46 by ($0.12). Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 6.10%. The business had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.63 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.28 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th were given a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This is a boost from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $1.81 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.0%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 136.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of Smurfit Westrock stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.26, for a total transaction of $512,600.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 151,644 shares in the company, valued at $7,773,271.44. This trade represents a 6.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.54, for a total transaction of $2,061,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,610 shares in the company, valued at approximately $84,660,119.40. The trade was a 2.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.46% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Smurfit Westrock

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SW. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. lifted its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 113.3% in the 3rd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 640 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the second quarter valued at about $29,000. DV Equities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Root Financial Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the third quarter worth about $33,000. 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.