Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) Receives Average Rating of "Buy" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Smurfit Westrock PLC has received an average rating of "Buy" from twelve brokerages, with one analyst suggesting a hold, while ten rated it buy, and one issued a strong buy rating.
• The company's average twelve-month target price is set at $57.90, reflecting analyst confidence in its performance despite a recent earnings miss.
• Smurfit Westrock recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.4308 per share, yielding 4.2%, although its payout ratio is quite high at 260.61%.

Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus rating of "Buy" from the twelve brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $57.90.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Monday, September 15th. They set a "buy" rating and a $60.00 price objective on the stock. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $63.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 30th.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

NYSE SW opened at $41.32 on Friday. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $43.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $43.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. Smurfit Westrock has a 12-month low of $37.01 and a 12-month high of $56.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.61 and a beta of 1.09.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $7.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $7.88 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.14% and a return on equity of 5.90%. Smurfit Westrock's revenue was up 167.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock will post 3.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were given a dividend of $0.4308 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. Smurfit Westrock's payout ratio is currently 260.61%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SW. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the first quarter valued at $1,051,299,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the second quarter valued at $749,735,000. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd lifted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% during the second quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 18,400,418 shares of the company's stock valued at $793,978,000 after purchasing an additional 8,286,205 shares during the period. Ruffer LLP acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the second quarter valued at $196,095,000. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 4,580.7% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,861,635 shares of the company's stock valued at $79,250,000 after purchasing an additional 1,821,862 shares during the period. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.

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