Alps Advisors Inc. Purchases New Position in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Alps Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 674,538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,084,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Private Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. International Private Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,152 shares of the company’s stock worth $277,000 after acquiring an additional 245 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 6,776 shares of the company’s stock worth $292,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares during the period. AXA S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 22,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $962,000 after acquiring an additional 285 shares during the period. Mariner LLC grew its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 31,906 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,358,000 after acquiring an additional 294 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Planning grew its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 7,082 shares of the company’s stock worth $301,000 after acquiring an additional 338 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on SW shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Friday, May 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $49.00 target price on the stock. Barclays reduced their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $58.00 target price on Smurfit Westrock in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $53.00.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

SW stock opened at $42.65 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.37 billion, a PE ratio of 59.24 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 company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.98.

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

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This represents a $1.81 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 251.39%.

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.