Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC Buys Shares of 1,404,000 Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 1,404,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,732,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 31.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 36,127,677 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,397,057,000 after purchasing an additional 8,596,558 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 14.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,806,914 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,013,474,000 after purchasing an additional 3,027,125 shares during the period. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% in the second quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 18,400,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $793,978,000 after purchasing an additional 8,286,205 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,795,987 shares of the company’s stock valued at $531,483,000 after purchasing an additional 155,778 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the fourth quarter valued at $495,335,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

SW stock opened at $41.34 on Monday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $21.68 billion, a PE ratio of 57.42 and a beta of 0.96. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 12-month low of $32.73 and a 12-month high of $52.65. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $40.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $40.77.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $7.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.57 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 4.96% and a net margin of 1.22%.Smurfit Westrock’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.74 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.32 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.4%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 251.39%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SW has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $57.00 price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 20th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $53.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Smurfit Westrock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.00.

Smurfit Westrock 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.