Franklin Resources Inc. Sells 4,515,826 Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Franklin Resources Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 39.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,837,314 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,515,826 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $263,919,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SW. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter valued at $495,335,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 31.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 36,127,677 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,397,057,000 after buying an additional 8,596,558 shares during the period. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd boosted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% during the second 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 Smurfit Westrock by 272.0% during the third 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. Finally, Ruffer LLP boosted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 473.3% during the fourth quarter. Ruffer LLP now owns 4,504,151 shares of the company’s stock valued at $174,447,000 after buying an additional 3,718,562 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $57.00 price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $58.00 price objective on Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $53.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.00.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 2.2%

Shares of SW stock opened at $41.38 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $40.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $40.88. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 12-month low of $32.73 and a 12-month high of $52.65. The firm has a market cap of $21.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.48 and a beta of 0.96.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.03). Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 4.96% and a net margin of 1.22%.The firm had revenue of $7.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.57 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.74 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.4523 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.81 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.4%. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is 251.39%.

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.