Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) Shares Down 0.6% – Time to Sell?

Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW)’s stock price fell 0.6% on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $45.50 and last traded at $45.72. 363,248 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 92% from the average session volume of 4,538,326 shares. The stock had previously closed at $46.00.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on SW. Argus began coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $66.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Truist Financial started coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Smurfit Westrock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.70.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Down 0.5 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $23.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 83.29 and a beta of 0.99. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $51.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $50.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.89.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.34 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%. On average, equities analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock Ltd will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $0.4308 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.76%. This is a boost from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is presently 312.73%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Smurfit Westrock news, insider Ken Bowles sold 24,225 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.06, for a total transaction of $1,333,828.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 111,458 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,136,877.48. The trade was a 17.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Alvaro Henao sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.90, for a total value of $215,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider now 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 owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Smurfit Westrock

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 78,871,259 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,249,613,000 after buying an additional 820,362 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter worth $1,300,041,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 51.6% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 20,720,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,115,996,000 after buying an additional 7,050,781 shares during the period. State Street Corp purchased a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 3rd quarter worth $967,582,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 18,439,852 shares of the company’s stock worth $993,170,000 after buying an additional 318,806 shares during the period. 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.