Vanguard Group Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Vanguard Group Inc. lessened its holdings in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 23.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 61,472,045 shares of the company’s stock after selling 18,949,285 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 11.77% of Smurfit Westrock worth $2,616,222,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. grew its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 113.3% in the 3rd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 640 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC bought a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. Root Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the third quarter worth about $33,000. Rexford Capital Inc. bought a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the second quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Whipplewood Advisors LLC raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 50.0% during the second quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 1,026 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 342 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on SW. Citigroup lifted their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Zacks Research raised shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group set a $58.00 price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $57.20.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 2.0%

NYSE SW opened at $51.86 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $27.09 billion, a PE ratio of 38.99 and a beta of 1.09. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 12 month low of $32.73 and a 12 month high of $55.49. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $42.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $7.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.63 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 6.10%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.28 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This represents a $1.81 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. This is an increase from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 136.09%.

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.