Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) Price Target Lowered to $56.00 at UBS Group

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) had its price target reduced by UBS Group from $60.00 to $56.00 in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. UBS Group currently has a buy rating on the stock.

SW has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $49.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 6th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $56.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.36.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of SW stock opened at $42.10 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $43.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $40.65. Smurfit Westrock has a twelve month low of $32.73 and a twelve month high of $52.65. The company has a market capitalization of $22.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.66 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 27th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.10% and a net margin of 2.24%.The company had revenue of $7.58 billion for the quarter. Equities analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th were paid a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This is a positive change from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.3%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is 136.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.54, for a total transaction of $2,061,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $84,660,119.40. This trade represents a 2.38% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.26, for a total transaction of $512,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 151,644 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,773,271.44. This trade represents a 6.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Smurfit Westrock

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 31.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 36,127,677 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,397,057,000 after acquiring an additional 8,596,558 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,652,132 shares of the company’s stock worth $953,311,000 after acquiring an additional 845,218 shares during the last quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd boosted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 8,286,205 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,795,987 shares of the company’s stock worth $531,483,000 after acquiring an additional 155,778 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter worth approximately $495,335,000. 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.