Westrock Coffee (NASDAQ:WEST) Shares Up 4.5% Following Insider Buying Activity

Westrock Coffee (NASDAQ:WEST)’s share price was up 4.5% on Thursday after an insider bought additional shares in the company. The company traded as high as $8.50 and last traded at $8.40. Approximately 101,786 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 46% from the average daily volume of 187,771 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.04.

Specifically, Director Joe T. Ford purchased 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $7.64 per share, for a total transaction of $38,200.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 244,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,867,559.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on WEST. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $12.00 target price on shares of Westrock Coffee in a research report on Monday, May 13th. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $14.00 price objective on shares of Westrock Coffee in a research note on Friday, June 28th.

Westrock Coffee Trading Up 4.1 %

The company has a market cap of $739.66 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.49 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.05, a current ratio of 1.31 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $9.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.90.

Westrock Coffee (NASDAQ:WEST) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported ($0.20) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by ($0.16). The company had revenue of $208.39 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $214.40 million. Westrock Coffee had a negative return on equity of 18.20% and a negative net margin of 5.37%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.21) earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Westrock Coffee will post -0.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Westrock Coffee

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. NFC Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Westrock Coffee during the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,416,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Westrock Coffee by 23.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,538,327 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,221,000 after purchasing an additional 478,088 shares during the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Westrock Coffee in the second quarter valued at $19,199,000. Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in Westrock Coffee by 2.1% in the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 269,174 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,754,000 after purchasing an additional 5,520 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL increased its stake in Westrock Coffee by 5.3% in the first quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 256,650 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,651,000 after purchasing an additional 13,000 shares during the last quarter. 45.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Westrock Coffee

Westrock Coffee Company, LLC operates as an integrated coffee, tea, flavors, extracts, and ingredients solutions provider in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Beverage Solutions, and Sustainable Sourcing & Traceability (SS&T). The Beverage Solutions segment provides various packaging, including branded and private label coffee in bags, fractional packs, and single serve cups, as well as extract solutions for applications in cold brew and ready-to-drink offerings.