Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) Shares Up 1.7% – Should You Buy?

Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW) traded up 1.7% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $45.18 and last traded at $44.29. 1,200,638 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 74% from the average session volume of 4,588,933 shares. The stock had previously closed at $43.56.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on SW. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Friday, November 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Truist Financial started coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price target on the stock. Barclays lifted their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $66.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.70.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Up 1.9 %

The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $52.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $50.67. The company has a market capitalization of $23.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 80.47 and a beta of 0.99.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.67 by ($0.33). Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.16% and a net margin of 0.63%. Equities analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock Ltd will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $0.4308 per share. This is a boost from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.89%. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is presently 312.73%.

Insider Activity at Smurfit Westrock

In related news, insider Alvaro Henao sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.90, for a total value of $215,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 44,361 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,391,057.90. This trade represents a 8.27 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Ken Bowles sold 24,225 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.06, for a total transaction of $1,333,828.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 111,458 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,136,877.48. This trade represents a 17.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.49% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 78,871,259 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,249,613,000 after purchasing an additional 820,362 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,300,041,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 51.6% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 20,720,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,115,996,000 after purchasing an additional 7,050,781 shares during the period. State Street Corp bought a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the third quarter worth approximately $967,582,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 18,439,852 shares of the company’s stock valued at $993,170,000 after acquiring an additional 318,806 shares during the last quarter. 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.