Pacer Advisors Inc. Reduces Holdings in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Pacer Advisors Inc. cut its position in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 96.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 58,130 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,803,505 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $2,248,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Compound Planning Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 21.1% during the fourth quarter. Compound Planning Inc. now owns 8,739 shares of the company’s stock worth $338,000 after buying an additional 1,521 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 39.4% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 9,677 shares of the company’s stock worth $358,000 after acquiring an additional 2,737 shares during the period. Alberta Investment Management Corp purchased a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter valued at about $53,969,000. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 14.0% in the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 22,148 shares of the company’s stock valued at $856,000 after buying an additional 2,715 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC increased its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 116.9% in the 4th quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 241,037 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,321,000 after purchasing an additional 129,905 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SW has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Citigroup reduced their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $53.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Friday, May 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Tuesday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $57.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $53.33.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

Shares of SW stock opened at $44.49 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $23.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 61.79 and a beta of 0.96. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1-year low of $32.73 and a 1-year high of $52.65. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $40.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $7.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.74 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were given a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 250.00%.

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.