Distillate Capital Partners LLC Makes New $15 Million Investment in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Distillate Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 352,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,001,000. Distillate Capital Partners LLC owned 0.07% of Smurfit Westrock at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the 2nd quarter worth about $749,735,000. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% in the 2nd quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 18,400,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $793,978,000 after buying an additional 8,286,205 shares during the period. UBS Group AG boosted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 272.0% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 11,240,153 shares of the company’s stock valued at $478,493,000 after buying an additional 8,218,351 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 94.4% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 11,353,140 shares of the company’s stock worth $482,917,000 after buying an additional 5,511,887 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 152.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,269,743 shares of the company’s stock worth $224,333,000 after buying an additional 3,180,531 shares in the last quarter. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SW has been the topic of several analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Monday, December 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Zacks Research raised shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $57.10.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Shares of SW stock opened at $39.75 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $44.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.48. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1 year low of $32.73 and a 1 year high of $52.65. The firm has a market cap of $20.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.89 and a beta of 1.06.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.46 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.63 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 6.10%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.28 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. This is a positive change from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.6%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 136.09%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.26, for a total value of $512,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 151,644 shares in the company, valued at $7,773,271.44. The trade was a 6.19% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.54, for a total value of $2,061,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $84,660,119.40. This represents a 2.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.