Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) Posts Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.33 EPS

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by ($0.33), Zacks reports. Smurfit Westrock had a negative net margin of 0.12% and a positive return on equity of 5.98%.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

NYSE:SW opened at $54.62 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $53.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $49.56. The stock has a market cap of $28.43 billion, a PE ratio of 303.43 and a beta of 1.02. Smurfit Westrock has a 52 week low of $38.55 and a 52 week high of $56.99.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.4308 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.16%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 672.26%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SW has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 target price for 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 report on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.70.

Insider Buying and Selling at Smurfit Westrock

In other Smurfit Westrock news, insider Saverio Mayer sold 25,000 shares of the business’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 transaction of $1,371,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 149,911 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,221,119.24. The trade was a 14.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.49% 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.