Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) Upgraded by Jefferies Financial Group to Buy Rating

Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has $55.00 price objective on the stock, up from their prior price objective of $44.00.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $66.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $53.00 to $43.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $62.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Barclays reduced their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $68.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $57.00 to $56.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.50.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SW opened at $43.23 on Monday. Smurfit Westrock has a one year low of $37.01 and a one year high of $56.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 78.61 and a beta of 1.04. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $42.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $48.08.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.08. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.16% and a net margin of 0.63%. The business had revenue of $7.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.41 billion. The business’s revenue was up 161.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be given a dividend of $0.4308 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a dividend yield of 3.7%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 140.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Smurfit Westrock

In other Smurfit Westrock news, Director Irial Finan purchased 15,180 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $39.21 per share, for a total transaction of $595,207.80. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 54,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,152,354.53. This represents a 38.22% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.49% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Smurfit Westrock

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,300,041,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the first quarter valued at about $1,051,299,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 51.6% in 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. Boston Partners acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter worth approximately $304,377,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 4,456.7% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,491,092 shares of the company’s stock worth $295,750,000 after purchasing an additional 5,370,587 shares in the last quarter. 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.