Smurfit Westrock Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:SW)

Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) was the target of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock traders bought 7,065 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 522% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,136 call options.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Up 1.4%

NYSE:SW opened at $43.28 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $40.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $41.00. Smurfit Westrock has a 52-week low of $32.73 and a 52-week 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 1.44. The company has a market cap of $22.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.03). Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 4.96% and a net margin of 1.22%.The firm had revenue of $7.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.74 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock will post 2.32 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a dividend of $0.4523 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.81 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.2%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 251.39%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of SW. Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A. acquired a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. DV Equities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC acquired a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. Root Financial Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 187.6% in the 1st quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 768 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 501 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC acquired a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays decreased their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Wall Street Zen lowered Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Citigroup decreased their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $53.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $53.00.

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.