Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) Lowered to Sell Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report issued on Saturday morning.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on SW. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $56.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 20th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.18.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Shares of SW stock opened at $41.66 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $21.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.86 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $41.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $40.53. Smurfit Westrock has a one year low of $32.73 and a one year high of $52.65.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $7.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.57 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.22% and a return on equity of 4.96%. The business’s revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.74 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Smurfit Westrock will post 2.32 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 251.39%.

Insider Transactions at Smurfit Westrock

In related news, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.26, for a total transaction of $512,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 151,644 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,773,271.44. This trade represents a 6.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.54, for a total transaction of $2,061,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,610 shares in the company, valued at approximately $84,660,119.40. This represents a 2.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Smurfit Westrock

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SW. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Smurfit Westrock by 90.5% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 13,425 shares of the company’s stock worth $593,000 after acquiring an additional 6,378 shares during the period. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC increased its position in Smurfit Westrock by 6.7% during the first quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 5,501 shares of the company’s stock worth $248,000 after acquiring an additional 346 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its position in Smurfit Westrock by 5.9% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 48,559 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,188,000 after acquiring an additional 2,698 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its position in Smurfit Westrock by 192.3% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 13,264 shares of the company’s stock worth $598,000 after acquiring an additional 8,726 shares during the period. Finally, Woodline Partners LP increased its position in Smurfit Westrock by 40.8% during the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 41,772 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,882,000 after acquiring an additional 12,096 shares during the period. 83.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.