Brokerages Set Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) PT at $57.90

Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) have received an average recommendation of “Buy” from the twelve analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $57.90.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on SW. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays decreased their target price 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. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Monday, September 15th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $60.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of SW stock opened at $43.02 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $43.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $43.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The stock has a market cap of $22.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.18 and a beta of 1.09. Smurfit Westrock has a twelve month low of $37.01 and a twelve month high of $56.99.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $7.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 for the quarter was up 167.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Smurfit Westrock will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were given a $0.4308 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.0%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 260.61%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 1.6% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 80,421,330 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,472,329,000 after buying an additional 1,233,997 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the first quarter worth about $1,051,299,000. State Street Corp increased its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 1.7% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,779,789 shares of the company’s stock worth $896,661,000 after purchasing an additional 339,787 shares during the period. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd increased its stake 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 worth $793,978,000 after purchasing an additional 8,286,205 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the second quarter worth about $749,735,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.