Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) Sets New 12-Month Low – Time to Sell?

Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW)’s stock price reached a new 52-week low on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $34.90 and last traded at $35.0190, with a volume of 3186879 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $35.38.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $52.00 target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $55.30.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.48. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.40. The firm has a market cap of $17.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.92 and a beta of 1.11.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.68 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $8 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.89 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.21% and a net margin of 2.40%.Smurfit Westrock’s revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.4308 per share. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is currently 120.28%.

Institutional Trading of Smurfit Westrock

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SW. Czech National Bank raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 6.7% in the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 121,218 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,231,000 after buying an additional 7,657 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 14.3% during the 2nd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 60,661 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,618,000 after purchasing an additional 7,588 shares during the last quarter. Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the 2nd quarter worth $481,000. Strs Ohio lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 43.2% in the second quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 49,613 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,141,000 after purchasing an additional 14,959 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Foresight Group Ltd Liability Partnership purchased a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the first quarter worth about $26,028,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.