Argus Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) Stock Price

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) had its target price decreased by equities research analysts at Argus from $55.00 to $45.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Argus’ target price indicates a potential upside of 24.60% from the company’s current price.

SW has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $52.00 price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Smurfit Westrock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $53.60.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 0.2%

SW opened at $36.12 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.26 and a beta of 1.10. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $42.44. Smurfit Westrock has a 1-year low of $32.73 and a 1-year high of $56.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 0.97.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Smurfit Westrock

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $749,735,000. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd boosted its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% during the second quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 18,400,418 shares of the company’s stock worth $793,978,000 after buying an additional 8,286,205 shares during the period. UBS Group AG boosted its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 272.0% during the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 11,240,153 shares of the company’s stock worth $478,493,000 after buying an additional 8,218,351 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 94.4% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 11,353,140 shares of the company’s stock valued at $482,917,000 after buying an additional 5,511,887 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ruffer LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the second quarter valued at $196,095,000. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.