Boston Partners Sells 268,446 Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Key Points

• Boston Partners has reduced its stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC by 4.8%, holding approximately 5.37 million shares valued at $241.18 million as of its latest SEC filing.
• Smurfit Westrock reported a quarterly earnings miss, with an EPS of $0.45 compared to the consensus estimate of $0.57, but showed a substantial year-over-year revenue increase of 167.4% to $7.94 billion.
• The company recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.4308, which will yield 3.8% annually, despite a high dividend payout ratio of 260.61%.

Boston Partners decreased its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW - Free Report) by 4.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,374,682 shares of the company's stock after selling 268,446 shares during the quarter. Boston Partners owned approximately 1.03% of Smurfit Westrock worth $241,182,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 0.4% during the first 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 period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,051,299,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased 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 purchasing an additional 7,050,781 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 18,439,852 shares of the company's stock valued at $993,170,000 after purchasing an additional 318,806 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 4.0% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,244,072 shares of the company's stock valued at $461,598,000 after purchasing an additional 395,015 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.38% of the company's stock.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 0.4%

Smurfit Westrock stock traded up $0.19 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $42.88. The stock had a trading volume of 4,230,183 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,707,956. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $44.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $45.47. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a twelve month low of $37.01 and a twelve month high of $56.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market cap of $22.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 64.97 and a beta of 1.06.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.12). Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 5.90% and a net margin of 1.14%. The firm had revenue of $7.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.88 billion. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 167.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th will be paid a $0.4308 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.0%. Smurfit Westrock's dividend payout ratio is 260.61%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on SW. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $57.00 to $56.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Smurfit Westrock from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $44.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $63.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Smurfit Westrock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $58.00.

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.