Barclays PLC Sells 2,067,094 Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Barclays PLC reduced its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 39.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,202,649 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,067,094 shares during the period. Barclays PLC’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $123,846,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 26.9% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 529,616 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,480,000 after acquiring an additional 112,197 shares in the last quarter. Agman Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the fourth quarter valued at $2,442,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 20.9% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,179,531 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,612,000 after buying an additional 204,274 shares in the last quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the fourth quarter valued at $15,468,000. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 54.7% in the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 53,417 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,066,000 after buying an additional 18,892 shares in the last quarter. 83.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Shares of SW stock opened at $44.58 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $23.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.91 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.44. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.12. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 52 week low of $32.73 and a 52 week high of $52.65.

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

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.1%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 251.39%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on SW. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Truist Financial set a $50.00 target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $53.00.

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.