Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW Stake Decreased by Vontobel Holding Ltd.

Vontobel Holding Ltd. lessened its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 11.3% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,261,179 shares of the company’s stock after selling 160,327 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $54,420,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SW. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the first quarter valued at approximately $1,051,299,000. Ruffer LLP bought a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the second quarter valued at approximately $196,095,000. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 74.8% during the first quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 10,114,213 shares of the company’s stock valued at $455,746,000 after buying an additional 4,329,653 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 39.3% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,100,067 shares of the company’s stock valued at $274,869,000 after buying an additional 1,721,889 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 16.1% during the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,689,254 shares of the company’s stock worth $256,358,000 after purchasing an additional 788,082 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

NYSE SW opened at $43.37 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 65.71 and a beta of 1.09. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1 year low of $37.01 and a 1 year high of $56.99. The business’s fifty day moving average is $44.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $43.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.45.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $7.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.88 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.14% and a return on equity of 5.90%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 167.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were given a dividend of $0.4308 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.0%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is presently 260.61%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on SW shares. Barclays dropped their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $63.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 30th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $52.00 target price on Smurfit Westrock and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group started coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a report on Monday, September 15th. They set a “buy” rating and a $60.00 target price on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $57.80.

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.