Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $53.3333.

Several research firms recently issued reports on SW. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Zacks Research raised shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, Truist Financial set a $50.00 target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Friday, May 1st.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sound Income Strategies LLC lifted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 79,790.6% during the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 127,825 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,459,000 after acquiring an additional 127,665 shares during the last quarter. BIP Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the 4th quarter worth $2,412,000. Tounjian Advisory Partners LLC acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the 3rd quarter worth $958,000. Barclays PLC lifted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 152.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,269,743 shares of the company’s stock worth $224,333,000 after acquiring an additional 3,180,531 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Distillate Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the 3rd quarter worth $15,001,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Up 0.2%

SW stock opened at $47.05 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. Smurfit Westrock has a 1 year low of $32.73 and a 1 year high of $52.65. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $41.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.71. The firm has a market cap of $24.68 billion, a PE ratio of 65.35, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 0.96.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released 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 net margin of 1.22% and a return on equity of 4.96%. The business had revenue of $7.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.74 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock will post 2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th were given a dividend of $0.4523 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is currently 251.39%.

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.