Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) Shares Down 7.5% – What’s Next?

Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW)’s share price traded down 7.5% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $41.56 and last traded at $41.6390. Approximately 1,201,556 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 5,888,844 shares. The stock had previously closed at $45.00.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Truist Financial set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $57.00 target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $49.00 target price for the company. Weiss Ratings downgraded Smurfit Westrock from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 20th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $53.33.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Down 7.8%

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $41.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.49, a P/E/G ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 0.95.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.03). Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 4.96% and a net margin of 1.22%.The company had revenue of $7.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.57 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.74 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th were given a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 251.39%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Smurfit Westrock

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 90.5% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 13,425 shares of the company’s stock valued at $593,000 after buying an additional 6,378 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC lifted its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 6.7% during the first quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 5,501 shares of the company’s stock worth $248,000 after acquiring an additional 346 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 5.9% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 48,559 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,188,000 after acquiring an additional 2,698 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 192.3% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 13,264 shares of the company’s stock worth $598,000 after acquiring an additional 8,726 shares during the period. Finally, Woodline Partners LP grew its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 40.8% in the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 41,772 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,882,000 after purchasing an additional 12,096 shares in the last quarter. 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.