ARGA Investment Management LP Has $10.43 Million Position in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW)

ARGA Investment Management LP lowered its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW - Free Report) by 81.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 233,292 shares of the company's stock after selling 994,094 shares during the quarter. Smurfit Westrock comprises 0.3% of ARGA Investment Management LP's portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. ARGA Investment Management LP's holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $10,427,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SW. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the fourth quarter worth $1,300,041,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 51.6% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 20,720,312 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,115,996,000 after buying an additional 7,050,781 shares during the period. Boston Partners acquired a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter worth about $304,377,000. FIL Ltd increased its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 68.2% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 10,962,433 shares of the company's stock valued at $590,853,000 after acquiring an additional 4,444,704 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 12.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,328,052 shares of the company's stock valued at $769,977,000 after acquiring an additional 1,594,939 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.38% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $57.00 to $56.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays lowered their price target 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. Jefferies Financial Group raised Smurfit Westrock from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $44.00 to $55.00 in a report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $57.90.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Irial Finan bought 15,180 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $39.21 per share, with a total value of $595,207.80. Following the transaction, the director owned 54,893 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,152,354.53. This trade represents a 38.22% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.49% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SW traded down $0.83 during trading on Friday, reaching $47.19. 1,852,615 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,162,832. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.63 billion, a PE ratio of 38.68 and a beta of 1.02. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 52 week low of $37.01 and a 52 week high of $56.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The company's 50 day moving average is $44.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $46.98.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.08. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 7.38% and a net margin of 1.98%. The company had revenue of $7.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.41 billion. The company's revenue was up 161.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th were paid a $0.4308 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 16th. This represents a dividend yield of 3.7%. Smurfit Westrock's dividend payout ratio is 140.98%.

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.