Vanguard Group Inc. Lowers Position in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Vanguard Group Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 23.6% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 61,472,045 shares of the company’s stock after selling 18,949,285 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.12% of Smurfit Westrock worth $2,616,222,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of SW. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. lifted its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 113.3% in the 3rd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 640 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares during the period. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the second quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Root Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. Rexford Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the second quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Whipplewood Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 50.0% during the second quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 1,026 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 342 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

Shares of SW stock opened at $51.86 on Thursday. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a fifty-two week low of $32.73 and a fifty-two week high of $55.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.99 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.38.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.63 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.10% and a net margin of 2.24%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.28 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis 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 of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 136.09%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SW has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Monday, December 29th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.20.

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.