Smurfit Westrock Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:SW)

Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock investors bought 8,878 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 517% compared to the average daily volume of 1,438 call options.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

SW stock traded up $0.14 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $43.28. The company had a trading volume of 881,956 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,812,060. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 60.12, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 0.95. Smurfit Westrock has a one year low of $32.73 and a one year high of $52.65. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $42.45.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.57 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.74 EPS. The business’s revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock will post 2.24 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th were paid a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is presently 251.39%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Smurfit Westrock

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 79,790.6% during the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 127,825 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,459,000 after acquiring an additional 127,665 shares in the last quarter. BIP Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter valued at $2,412,000. AE Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 369,652 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,294,000 after purchasing an additional 30,804 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter worth about $924,000. Finally, Horizon Investments LLC raised its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 1,042.7% during the 4th quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 207,429 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,021,000 after buying an additional 189,276 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $57.00 price target for the company. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $49.00 price target on the stock. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Smurfit Westrock from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Thursday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.83.

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.