The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in WestRock Company (NYSE:WRK). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Consumer Cyclical company by 1.28% to 29.8 million shares with purchase of 0.38 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 11.70% valued currently at $935.63 million. In addition, BlackRock Fund Advisors raised its holdings by 0.6 million to 17.24 million shares. And Invesco Capital Management LLC has lifted its position by 48.24% or 1.76 million shares – to 5.41 million shares.
With over 3.34 million WestRock Company (WRK) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $28.34 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $94.56 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -31.56% and its price on 03/14/23 lost nearly -0.32%. Currently, there are 254.70M common shares owned by the public and among those 251.19M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 12 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for WRK have a consensus price objective of $38.44. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $50.00 and a low of $32.00. The average price target is 26.27% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 11.44% over that period. But an upside of 43.32% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $37.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 50 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 30 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 272,870 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 20 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 140,583 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in WestRock Company are Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund, and Vanguard 500 Index Fund. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index owns 7.81 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $245.13 million. The company bought an additional 62821.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.07% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund bought 9546.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 5.93 million shares valued at over $186.1 million and representing 2.33% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 13981.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 5.89 million shares at a value of $185.04 million. Vanguard 500 Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.31% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of WestRock Company (NYSE: WRK) opened at $29.19, up $0.76 from a prior closing price of $28.43. However, the script later moved the day high at 29.35, down -0.32%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -9.31% and -21.01% over the past three months. WRK shares are trading -19.40% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -34.55% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $28.37 and touched a high of $54.78 over the same period. WRK has an average intraday trading volume of 2.12 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -10.72%, -17.39%, and -24.20% respectively.
Institutional ownership of WestRock Company (NYSE: WRK) shares accounts for 90.60% of the company’s 254.70M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 38.51%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 49.63% and 2.09% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $7.43B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.21. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 9.03, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $3.14. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 3.33% over the week and 2.62% over the month.
Analysts forecast that WestRock Company (WRK) will achieve an EPS of $0.53 for the current quarter, $0.93 for the next quarter and $3.23 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.45 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.67. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1.17 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 15.30%, and 8.49% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of -12.47% over the next five years, compared to 5.50% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 12 brokerage firm advisors rate WestRock Company (WRK) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.60. Specifically, 4 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 7 of the 12 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Citigroup coverage for the WestRock Company (WRK) stock in a research note released on June 21, 2022 offered a Neutral rating with a price target of $45. BofA Securities was of a view on January 20, 2022 that the stock is Neutral, while Jefferies gave the stock Hold rating on November 01, 2021, issuing a price target of $84- $54. Truist on their part issued Hold rating on October 13, 2021.
