Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) Trading Down 7.5% – Here’s What Happened

Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW)’s stock price traded down 7.5% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $41.56 and last traded at $41.6390. Approximately 1,201,556 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 5,888,844 shares. The stock had previously closed at $45.00.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on SW shares. UBS Group reduced their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Barclays cut their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Wall Street Zen lowered Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $57.00 target price for the company. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.17.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 2.3%

The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.19. 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 company has a market cap of $22.58 billion, a PE ratio of 59.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.95.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $7.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.57 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.22% and a return on equity of 4.96%. Smurfit Westrock’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.74 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th were paid a dividend of $0.4523 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.2%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 251.39%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of SW. Sound Income Strategies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 79,790.6% during the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 127,825 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,459,000 after buying an additional 127,665 shares during the last quarter. BIP Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the fourth quarter valued at $2,412,000. AE Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Smurfit Westrock by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 369,652 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,294,000 after acquiring an additional 30,804 shares during the period. Distillate Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the third quarter valued at about $15,001,000. Finally, Capital International Investors purchased a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the third quarter valued at about $16,540,000. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.