Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW Shares Acquired by KBC Group NV

KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 101.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 875,030 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 440,279 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $34,870,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of SW. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the fourth quarter valued at about $495,335,000. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Smurfit Westrock by 31.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 36,127,677 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,397,057,000 after purchasing an additional 8,596,558 shares in the last quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd raised its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 8,286,205 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 8,132.7% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,724,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $221,351,000 after purchasing an additional 5,654,571 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ruffer LLP lifted its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 473.3% in the 4th quarter. Ruffer LLP now owns 4,504,151 shares of the company’s stock valued at $174,447,000 after purchasing an additional 3,718,562 shares in the last quarter. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Barclays lowered their price objective 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. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Smurfit Westrock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.83.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Down 2.5%

Shares of NYSE SW opened at $43.17 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a one year low of $32.73 and a one year high of $52.65. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $42.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.64 billion, a PE ratio of 59.96, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta 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 (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 company had revenue of $7.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.74 EPS. The company’s revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were given a $0.4523 dividend. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.