WestRock (WRK) Receiving Somewhat Favorable News Coverage, Study Shows

News articles about WestRock (NYSE:WRK) have trended somewhat positive this week, Accern Sentiment reports. Accern identifies negative and positive news coverage by monitoring more than twenty million blog and news sources in real-time. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. WestRock earned a daily sentiment score of 0.15 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave news coverage about the basic materials company an impact score of 47.1495208394802 out of 100, indicating that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the near term.

These are some of the media stories that may have impacted Accern Sentiment’s scoring:

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Several analysts have recently issued reports on WRK shares. Deutsche Bank set a $78.00 price target on shares of WestRock and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price target on shares of WestRock in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of WestRock from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $74.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Saturday, April 7th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of WestRock from $80.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, ValuEngine cut shares of WestRock from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 27th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. The stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $75.90.

NYSE:WRK traded down $0.19 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $62.09. The stock had a trading volume of 1,150,078 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,847,621. The stock has a market cap of $15.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.40. WestRock has a twelve month low of $51.61 and a twelve month high of $71.55. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

WestRock (NYSE:WRK) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 27th. The basic materials company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.83. The firm had revenue of $4.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.10 billion. WestRock had a net margin of 12.01% and a return on equity of 7.84%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.54 earnings per share. equities analysts anticipate that WestRock will post 4.07 EPS for the current year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 14th. Investors of record on Friday, May 4th were issued a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 3rd. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.77%. WestRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.65%.

In related news, Director John A. Luke, Jr. sold 75,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.95, for a total value of $5,021,250.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 534,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,761,945.05. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John A. Luke, Jr. sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.56, for a total transaction of $3,278,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 545,435 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,758,718.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 190,831 shares of company stock worth $12,656,836. 2.68% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

WestRock Company Profile

WestRock Company manufactures and sells paper and packaging solutions for the consumer and corrugated markets in North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company operates through three segments: Corrugated Packaging, Consumer Packaging, and Land and Development. The Corrugated Packaging segment produces containerboards, corrugated sheets, corrugated packaging, and preprinted linerboards for consumer and industrial products manufacturers, and corrugated box manufacturers.