Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW Shares Sold by California Public Employees Retirement System

California Public Employees Retirement System reduced its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 2.7% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 847,401 shares of the company’s stock after selling 23,407 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $33,769,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 93.1% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,208 shares of the company’s stock worth $128,000 after buying an additional 1,547 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 21,632 shares of the company’s stock valued at $868,000 after acquiring an additional 495 shares during the last quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC grew its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 14.1% during the 1st quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 13,083 shares of the company’s stock worth $521,000 after acquiring an additional 1,620 shares in the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC grew its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 37.6% during the 1st quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 13,406 shares of the company’s stock worth $534,000 after acquiring an additional 3,662 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MASTERINVEST Kapitalanlage GmbH bought a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 1st quarter worth about $1,073,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SW has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group decreased their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Wall Street Zen lowered Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.83.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:SW opened at $43.06 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $42.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.44. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1-year low of $32.73 and a 1-year high of $52.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.95.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.03). Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.22% and a return on equity of 4.96%. The business had revenue of $7.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.57 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.74 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.24 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a $0.4523 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 251.39%.

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.