WestRock WRK Confirms Merger With Smurfit Kappa, Shares Gain

The companies are working on boosting their capacity to capitalize on this packaging demand. You are being directed to ZacksTrade, a division of LBMZ Securities and licensed broker-dealer. The web link between the two companies is not a solicitation or offer to invest in a particular security or type of security.

The company is scheduled to release its next quarterly earnings announcement on Thursday, November 9th 2023. The stocks might have some downside, but their prices account for a considerable amount of risk. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024 after regulatory approvals. The two companies’ combined revenue in the last fiscal year was $34 billion, and adjusted core profit was $5.5 billion. The new company, Smurfit WestRock, will be worth about $20 billion when listed.

These two companies generate plenty of cash flow to sustain — and grow — their dividend payouts for years to come. The industry with the best average Zacks Rank would be considered the top industry (1 out of 265), which would place it in the top 1% of Zacks Ranked Industries. The industry with the worst average Zacks Rank (265 out of 265) would place in the bottom 1%. An industry with a larger percentage of Zacks Rank #1’s and #2’s will have a better average Zacks Rank than one with a larger percentage of Zacks Rank #4’s and #5’s. Upgrade to MarketBeat All Access to add more stocks to your watchlist.

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The company was incorporated in 2018 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. Packaging company WestRock’s (WRK) shares soared by almost 7% in pre-market trading on Tuesday after a merger announcement with Dublin-based Smurfit Kappa to create the world’s largest listed paper and packaging company by revenue. At the center of everything we do is a strong commitment to independent research and sharing its profitable discoveries with investors. This dedication to giving investors a trading advantage led to the creation of our proven Zacks Rank stock-rating system.

Nevertheless, increasing packaging requirements due to a rising trend in e-commerce activities and steady demand from consumer-oriented end markets, such as food and beverages, and healthcare, are envisioned to support the industry. Per the agreement, WestRock shareholders will receive one Smurfit WestRock share and $5 cash. This is equivalent to $43.51 per share, the closing share price of Smurfit Kappa’s shares on Sep 11, 2023. SMFKY will own approximately 50.4% in Smurfit WestRock and the balance 49.6% will be held by WRK.

About WestRock (NYSE:WRK) Stock

Some better-ranked stocks from the basic materials space are Carpenter Technology Corporation CRS and Hawkins, Inc. Smurfit WestRock would be incorporated and domiciled in Ireland with global headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and North and South American operations headquartered in Atlanta, GA. It will seek a New York listing with a standard listing on the London Stock Exchange. These two industry leaders pay handsome dividends and aren’t getting enough respect from the market, which puts them in play for income investors and value investors alike. Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) looks to find companies that have recently seen positive earnings estimate revision activity.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HWKN’s fiscal 2024 earnings is pegged at $3.40 per share, up 38% in the past 60 days. Current-year earnings estimate for Carpenter Technology is pegged at $3.48 per share, indicating year-over-year growth of 205%. CRS beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the last four quarters, the average surprise being 10%. Smurfit WestRock will have an unmatched geographic reach spanning 42 countries. WestRock’s shares have jumped 7.2% in pre-market trading on the news.

WestRock Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides fiber-based paper and packaging solutions in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It operates in four segments, Corrugated Packaging, Consumer Packaging, Global Paper, and Distribution. The Corrugated Packaging segment produces containerboards, corrugated sheets, corrugated packaging, and preprinted linerboards to consumer and industrial products manufacturers, and corrugated box manufacturers. In addition, this segment manufactures and sells solid fiber and corrugated partitions, and die-cut paperboard components. The Global Paper segment manufactures containerboard, paperboard, and specialty grades primarily to corrugated packaging, folding carton, food service, liquid packaging, tobacco, and commercial print markets.

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High-growth stocks tend to represent the technology, healthcare, and communications sectors. They rarely distribute dividends to shareholders, what is sales turnover opting for reinvestment in their businesses. More value-oriented stocks tend to represent financial services, utilities, and energy stocks.

That means you want to buy stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 or #2, Strong Buy or Buy, which also has a Score of an A or a B in your personal trading style. The Style Scores are a complementary set of indicators to use alongside the Zacks Rank. It allows the user to better focus on the stocks that are the best fit for his or her personal trading style.

Zacks Ranks stocks can, and often do, change throughout the month. Certain Zacks Rank stocks for which no month-end price was available, pricing information was not collected, or for certain other reasons have been excluded from these return calculations. Verint Systems — The analytics company lost 16.2% in premarket trading after Verint’s second-quarter earnings and revenue fell short of expectations. Verint posted adjusted earnings of 48 cents per share, while analysts polled by FactSet forecast 57 cents per share. Revenue came in at $210.2 million, falling short of the estimated $57.4 million.

Roku — The streaming stock was 1% lower in early morning trading after Loop Capital downgraded the company to hold from buy. The move comes after Roku jumped more than 12% Wednesday after announcing plans to lay off 10% of its staff, as well as consolidate office space and review its content slate to trim expenses. Roku had also lifted its third-quarter https://1investing.in/ revenue guidance, saying it now expects revenue to range between $835 million and $875 million, versus prior guidance of $815 million. Both WRK and SMFKY are major players in the Paper and Related Products industry. Recently, the industry has been impacted by weak packaging demand, as customer spending has been muted due to inflationary pressures.

Price Target and Rating

Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. Under the terms of the agreement, for each share of common stock, stockholders will receive one new Smurfit WestRock share and $5.00 in cash. Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Morningstar Index (Market Barometer) quotes are real-time.

• This is equivalent to $43.51 per share, the closing share price of Smurfit Kappa’s shares on Sep 11, 2023.
• CRS beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the last four quarters, the average surprise being 10%.
• Data may be intentionally delayed pursuant to supplier requirements.
• The deal is subject to approval of shareholders of both WestRock and Smurfit Kappa as well as other customary closing conditions.

WestRock manufactures corrugated packaging and consumer packaging, such as folding cartons and paperboard. 9 Wall Street research analysts have issued “buy,” “hold,” and “sell” ratings for WestRock in the last twelve months. There are currently 1 sell rating, 5 hold ratings and 3 buy ratings for the stock.

ChargePoint noted $150 million in revenue while analysts polled by LSEG forecast $153 million. The company also said it would cut its global workforce by about 10%. Given the extensive synergies between the two companies, Smurfit Kappa expects the deal to increase profits in the high single-digit by over 20% by the end of its first year of operations. A new holding company will be created for Smurfit WestRock, which will be Dublin-based and listed on the New York Stock Exchange. However, the deal offered a 28% premium to WestRock’s closing price yesterday, leading to a jump in its stock price. The deal is subject to approval of shareholders of both WestRock and Smurfit Kappa as well as other customary closing conditions.

Since 1988 it has more than doubled the S&P 500 with an average gain of +24.32% per year. These returns cover a period from January 1, 1988 through July 31, 2023. Zacks Rank stock-rating system returns are computed monthly based on the beginning of the month and end of the month Zacks Rank stock prices plus any dividends received during that particular month. A simple, equally-weighted average return of all Zacks Rank stocks is calculated to determine the monthly return. The monthly returns are then compounded to arrive at the annual return. Only Zacks Rank stocks included in Zacks hypothetical portfolios at the beginning of each month are included in the return calculations.

The idea is that more recent information is, generally speaking, more accurate and can be a better predictor of the future, which can give investors an advantage in earnings season. The scores are based on the trading styles of Value, Growth, and Momentum. There’s also a VGM Score (‘V’ for Value, ‘G’ for Growth and ‘M’ for Momentum), which combines the weighted average of the individual style scores into one score. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.275 per share on Thursday, August 24th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.99%.

WestRock declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 5th 2022, which permits the company to buyback 25,000,000 shares, according to EventVestor. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued. WestRock saw a decline in short interest in the month of August.

WestRock’s stock was trading at $35.16 at the beginning of 2023. Since then, WRK stock has increased by 4.7% and is now trading at $36.82. The companies will form Smurfit WestRock — set to be one of the largest packaging companies in the world. Energy companies were rising broadly as the price of crude oil climbed. Activist investor Starboard Value sent a letter to the company saying it’s deeply undervalued and needs to cut costs and make other changes.

© 2023 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided ‘as-is’ and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see Barchart’s disclaimer. The company is combining with Smurfit Kappa to create a global packaging company. ChargePoint Holdings — Shares of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure company tumbled 11.6% after ChargePoint missed estimates for the fiscal second quarter.

The consensus among Wall Street research analysts is that investors should “hold” WRK shares. A hold rating indicates that analysts believe investors should maintain any existing positions they have in WRK, but not buy additional shares or sell existing shares. WestRock is in merger talks with Ireland’s Smurfit Kappa that could potentially create a paper and packaging company worth about $20 billion. Total consideration to WestRock stockholders is equivalent to $43.51 per WestRock Share, based on the closing share price of Smurfit Kappa ordinary shares on September 11, 2023. Hawkins has an average trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 25.5%.

Morningstar analysts hand-select direct competitors or comparable companies to

provide context on the strength and durability of WRK’s

competitive advantage. The business is profitable, investing in the future, and pays a healthy annual dividend yielding 5%. Founded in 1993 by brothers Tom and David Gardner, The Motley Fool helps millions of people attain financial freedom through our website, podcasts, books, newspaper column, radio show, and premium investing services. The Zacks Industry Rank assigns a rating to each of the 265 X (Expanded) Industries based on their average Zacks Rank. As an investor, you want to buy stocks with the highest probability of success.

As of August 15th, there was short interest totaling 3,630,000 shares, a decline of 17.5% from the July 31st total of 4,400,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,580,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.4 days. On July 25, 2023, WestRock Co ( WRK , Financial) experienced a gain of 4.88%, with its stock price reaching $32.26. Despite a market cap of $8.3 billion and sales of $21.1 billion, the company reporte… The operator of convenience stores and gas stations reported earnings that blew past analysts’ estimates. Apple — Apple shares fell more than 2.6% after Bloomberg News reported China is planning to extend a ban on iPhone use to state-owned corporations.

• The web link between the two companies is not a solicitation or offer to invest in a particular security or type of security.
• Common stockholders of WestRock will receive a share of the new company plus $5 in cash for each share they own, adding up to $43.5 per share based on yesterday’s closing price of Smurfit Kappa ordinary shares.
• The company is combining with Smurfit Kappa to create a global packaging company.

One share of WRK stock can currently be purchased for approximately $36.82. 370 employees have rated WestRock Chief Executive Officer Steve Voorhees on Glassdoor.com. Steve Voorhees has an approval rating of 74% among the company’s employees.