Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.11 EPS

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.45 by ($0.11), FiscalAI reports. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 2.40% and a return on equity of 6.21%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.28 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year.

Here are the key takeaways from Smurfit Westrock’s conference call:

• Smurfit Westrock reported record-scale results with Q4 Adjusted EBITDA $1.172bn and FY Adjusted EBITDA $4.939bn, generated over $1.5bn of adjusted free cash flow for the year, reduced leverage to 2.6x, raised the dividend 5%, and received a Fitch upgrade to BBB+.
• North America faced pronounced headwinds — sharp volume declines, portfolio pruning (≈1.2bn sqm of lost business), mill downtime that cost ~$85m in Q4 (~$220m for the year), and the announced La Tuque SBS closure — pressuring near-term utilization and earnings.
• The company unveiled a bottom-up medium-term plan targeting ~$7bn Adjusted EBITDA by 2030, about $14bn adjusted free cash flow (2026–2030), ~$13bn cumulative CapEx (focused on high-return projects), ~$5bn of dividends and share buybacks beginning 2027, and a path toward ~2x leverage.
• Management is executing strategic commercial and operational changes — owner-operator model, shedding uneconomic contracts, experience centers and AI InnoTools for value-selling — and says roughly half the lost North American volume is already being replaced by higher‑quality pipeline business to drive margin recovery.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Up 12.5%

Shares of SW stock traded up $5.73 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $51.48. 7,811,640 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,761,363. Smurfit Westrock has a 52 week low of $32.73 and a 52 week high of $55.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The business has a 50 day moving average of $40.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.15. The company has a market capitalization of $26.89 billion, a PE ratio of 35.88 and a beta of 1.09.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be issued a $0.4523 dividend. This represents a $1.81 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. This is a boost from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 120.28%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Smurfit Westrock

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 27.4% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 12,414 shares of the company’s stock valued at $480,000 after purchasing an additional 2,672 shares in the last quarter. Danske Bank A S acquired a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $3,494,000. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $824,000. Utah Retirement Systems lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 209.2% in the 3rd quarter. Utah Retirement Systems now owns 85,152 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,625,000 after acquiring an additional 57,613 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 14.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,806,914 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,013,474,000 after acquiring an additional 3,027,125 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on SW shares. Citigroup cut their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $49.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Zacks Research upgraded Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Ten investment 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, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $51.60.

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.