Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) Price Target Raised to $56.00

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) had its price objective upped by Royal Bank Of Canada from $53.00 to $56.00 in a report issued on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $49.00 target price on the stock. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price 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. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.83.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SW opened at $44.39 on Friday. Smurfit Westrock has a 1-year low of $32.73 and a 1-year high of $52.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The stock has a market cap of $23.28 billion, a PE ratio of 61.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $42.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $42.42.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.03). Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.22% and a return on equity of 4.96%. The firm had revenue of $7.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.74 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock will post 2.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were given a $0.4523 dividend. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 251.39%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Smurfit Westrock

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SW. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter worth approximately $495,335,000. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 31.2% during the 4th 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 raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% during the 2nd 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 increased its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 8,132.7% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,724,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $221,351,000 after purchasing an additional 5,654,571 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trinity Street Asset Management LLP purchased a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the 2nd quarter valued at about $243,400,000. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.