Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) Receives $58.00 Average PT from Brokerages

Key Points

• Smurfit Westrock PLC has received a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from ten brokerages, with nine analysts assigning a buy recommendation and one a hold.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.4308 per share, representing an annualized yield of 3.9%.
• Despite missing quarterly earnings estimates with an EPS of $0.45, Smurfit Westrock reported a significant revenue increase of 167.4% year-over-year, totaling $7.94 billion.

Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $58.00.

A number of brokerages recently commented on SW. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Smurfit Westrock from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the company from $44.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Truist Financial increased their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $57.00 to $56.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $63.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 30th.

Institutional Trading of Smurfit Westrock

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 127,600.0% during the 1st quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,277 shares of the company's stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 1,276 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 9,003,480 shares of the company's stock valued at $484,927,000 after acquiring an additional 149,210 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 106.3% during the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 11,709 shares of the company's stock valued at $528,000 after purchasing an additional 6,032 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC increased its position in Smurfit Westrock by 120.6% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 180,908 shares of the company's stock valued at $9,744,000 after buying an additional 98,887 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 2.8% during the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 57,939 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,610,000 after acquiring an additional 1,600 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company's stock.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

Shares of SW traded down $1.53 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $42.64. The company had a trading volume of 4,820,131 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,715,206. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The company has a market capitalization of $22.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.60 and a beta of 1.06. Smurfit Westrock has a twelve month low of $37.01 and a twelve month high of $56.99. The company's 50-day moving average is $44.89 and its 200-day moving average is $46.15.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.12). Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.14% and a return on equity of 5.90%. The business had revenue of $7.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.88 billion. The firm's revenue was up 167.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be issued a $0.4308 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.0%. Smurfit Westrock's payout ratio is 260.61%.

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.