North Dakota State Investment Board Acquires Shares of 17,866 Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

North Dakota State Investment Board acquired a new stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 17,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $691,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Stephens Inc. AR raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 11.2% in the 4th quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 6,202 shares of the company’s stock valued at $240,000 after purchasing an additional 624 shares during the last quarter. DNB Asset Management AS raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 117,696 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,551,000 after purchasing an additional 8,679 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 42,638 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,649,000 after purchasing an additional 4,100 shares during the last quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 200.2% in the 4th quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 255,515 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,881,000 after purchasing an additional 170,404 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. bought a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter valued at $427,000. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on SW shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $57.00 price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $58.00 price objective on Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $49.00 target price for the company. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $53.00.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:SW opened at $37.77 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.46 and a beta of 0.95. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1-year low of $32.73 and a 1-year high of $52.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $39.99 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $40.37.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $7.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.57 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 4.96% and a net margin of 1.22%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.74 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th will be issued a $0.4523 dividend. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 251.39%.

Smurfit Westrock Company Profile

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.