QRG Capital Management Inc. Acquires 532 Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 4.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,241 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 532 shares during the quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $528,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 79,187,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,564,678,000 after acquiring an additional 316,074 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the 1st quarter worth about $1,051,299,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,244,072 shares of the company’s stock worth $461,598,000 after acquiring an additional 395,015 shares during the last quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd increased its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 74.8% in the 1st quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 10,114,213 shares of the company’s stock worth $455,746,000 after acquiring an additional 4,329,653 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 39.3% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,100,067 shares of the company’s stock worth $274,869,000 after acquiring an additional 1,721,889 shares during the last quarter. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on SW. Wells Fargo & Company set a $52.00 target price on Smurfit Westrock and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group initiated coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Monday, September 15th. They set a “buy” rating and a $60.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays reduced their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $63.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.80.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Down 5.5%

SW opened at $40.53 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $21.16 billion, a PE ratio of 61.40 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The business has a 50 day moving average of $44.08 and a 200-day moving average of $43.93. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 52 week low of $37.01 and a 52 week high of $56.99.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $7.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.88 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.14% and a return on equity of 5.90%. The business’s revenue was up 167.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a $0.4308 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.3%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 260.61%.

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.