Brokerages Set Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW) Target Price at $60.70

Shares of Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eight have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $60.70.

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on SW. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Friday, November 15th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $66.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Argus initiated coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price target on the stock.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SW opened at $44.24 on Thursday. Smurfit Westrock has a one year low of $38.55 and a one year high of $56.99. The firm has a market cap of $23.02 billion, a PE ratio of 80.43 and a beta of 0.99. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $52.32 and a 200 day moving average of $50.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by ($0.33). Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.16% and a net margin of 0.63%. As a group, research analysts predict that Smurfit Westrock will post 3.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The business 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 $0.4308 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.90%. This is a boost from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 312.73%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Smurfit Westrock

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

Institutional Trading of Smurfit Westrock

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SW. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the third quarter worth about $542,000. US Bancorp DE acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the third quarter worth about $791,000. Stephens Inc. AR acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the third quarter worth about $268,000. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the third quarter worth about $1,605,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the third quarter worth about $279,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

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.