Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.43 Per Share

Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of 0.4308 per share on Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.29%. This is an increase from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Down 2.1 %

NYSE SW traded down $1.12 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $52.44. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,080,513 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,753,261. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 291.36 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $53.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.16. Smurfit Westrock has a twelve month low of $38.55 and a twelve month high of $56.99.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.71 by ($0.23). The firm had revenue of $7.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a positive return on equity of 5.98% and a negative net margin of 0.12%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.81 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock will post 2.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Smurfit Westrock

In other Smurfit Westrock news, insider Saverio Mayer sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.84, for a total value of $1,371,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 149,911 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,221,119.24. This represents a 14.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.49% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Argus began coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price objective on the stock. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $60.70.

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.