Wells Fargo & Company Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) Stock

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW - Get Free Report) had its price target upped by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $43.00 to $45.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an "equal weight" rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company's price objective would suggest a potential downside of 4.64% from the stock's previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $62.00 to $50.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. 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. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Smurfit Westrock from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $44.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $63.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $57.90.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:SW traded down $0.83 on Thursday, hitting $47.19. The company had a trading volume of 1,852,615 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,013,039. Smurfit Westrock has a 1-year low of $37.01 and a 1-year high of $56.99. The stock has a market cap of $24.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.68 and a beta of 1.02. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $44.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $46.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.08. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.98% and a return on equity of 7.38%. The firm had revenue of $7.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.41 billion. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 161.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Smurfit Westrock

In related news, Director Irial Finan bought 15,180 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $39.21 per share, with a total value of $595,207.80. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 54,893 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,152,354.53. The trade was a 38.22% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.49% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. NBC Securities Inc. increased its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 127,600.0% in the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,277 shares of the company's stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 1,276 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,328,052 shares of the company's stock valued at $769,977,000 after buying an additional 1,594,939 shares during the period. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 45.5% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 13,151 shares of the company's stock valued at $708,000 after buying an additional 4,115 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 9,003,480 shares of the company's stock valued at $484,927,000 after buying an additional 149,210 shares during the period. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 106.3% in the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 11,709 shares of the company's stock valued at $528,000 after buying an additional 6,032 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.