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

Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the thirteen research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eleven have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $53.00.

SW has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 20th. UBS Group cut their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Citigroup cut their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $53.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of Smurfit Westrock stock opened at $41.15 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $39.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.49. The company has a market cap of $21.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.16 and a beta of 0.95. 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.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced 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). The business had revenue of $7.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.57 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 4.96% and a net margin of 1.22%.The firm’s revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.74 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock will post 2.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SW. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. grew 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 valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC acquired a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. DV Equities LLC acquired a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A. acquired a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Root Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in 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 buying an additional 501 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Smurfit Westrock Company Profile

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.