Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) Receives $54.83 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $54.8333.

SW has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group reduced 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 note on Monday, April 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $49.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $57.00 price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

NYSE:SW opened at $43.06 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $22.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.81, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.95. Smurfit Westrock has a fifty-two week low of $32.73 and a fifty-two week high of $52.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.44. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $42.51 and a 200-day moving average price of $42.48.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last issued 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 company had revenue of $7.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.57 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 4.96% and a net margin of 1.22%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.74 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock will post 2.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.81 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.2%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 251.39%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Smurfit Westrock

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the 4th quarter worth $495,335,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 31.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 36,127,677 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,397,057,000 after buying an additional 8,596,558 shares in the last quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd boosted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% in the second quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 18,400,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $793,978,000 after buying an additional 8,286,205 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 8,132.7% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,724,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $221,351,000 after buying an additional 5,654,571 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Trinity Street Asset Management LLP bought a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the second quarter valued at about $243,400,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

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.