Smurfit Westrock Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:SW)

Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Investors acquired 7,065 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 522% compared to the average daily volume of 1,136 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on SW. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 20th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $57.00 target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $53.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Smurfit Westrock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SW. Wahed Invest LLC raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 13,721 shares of the company’s stock worth $531,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. International Private Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. International Private Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,152 shares of the company’s stock valued at $277,000 after buying an additional 245 shares during the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 4.1% during the second quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 6,776 shares of the company’s stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 264 shares during the period. AXA S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 1.3% during the second quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 22,283 shares of the company’s stock valued at $962,000 after buying an additional 285 shares during the period. Finally, Mariner LLC boosted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 0.9% during the third quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 31,906 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,358,000 after acquiring an additional 294 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Shares of Smurfit Westrock stock traded up $0.67 on Thursday, reaching $39.62. 3,092,143 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,770,757. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.78 billion, a PE ratio of 55.07 and a beta of 0.96. Smurfit Westrock has a 1-year low of $32.73 and a 1-year high of $52.65. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $40.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $40.92. 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 (NYSE:SW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.03). Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.22% and a return on equity of 4.96%. The firm had revenue of $7.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.74 EPS. Smurfit Westrock’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a $0.4523 dividend. This represents a $1.81 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 250.00%.

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.