Marathon Asset Management Ltd Takes Position in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Marathon Asset Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 243,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,360,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of SW. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,238,000. SWS Partners grew its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. SWS Partners now owns 66,939 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,850,000 after buying an additional 3,054 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 5.4% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 20,879 shares of the company’s stock worth $889,000 after buying an additional 1,079 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 9.8% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 8,133 shares of the company’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 726 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 4,580.7% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,861,635 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,250,000 after acquiring an additional 1,821,862 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Monday, September 15th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $60.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $52.00 target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $53.30.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Up 1.6%

Smurfit Westrock stock opened at $38.76 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 0.97. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a fifty-two week low of $32.73 and a fifty-two week high of $56.05. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $37.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.88. The firm has a market cap of $20.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.10 and a beta of 1.10.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.10). Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.21% and a net margin of 2.40%.The business had revenue of $8 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.89 billion. The company’s revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th were issued a dividend of $0.4308 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 14th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.4%. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is 120.28%.

About Smurfit Westrock

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.