Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Buys 587,626 Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Key Points

• Dimensional Fund Advisors LP has increased its position in Smurfit Westrock PLC by 16.5% in the first quarter, holding approximately 0.79% of the company, valued at $186.5 million.
• Smurfit Westrock recently reported a quarterly earnings miss, with $0.45 EPS against an expected $0.57, but had a significant revenue increase of 167.4% year-over-year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.4308 per share, translating to an annual yield of 4.0%, despite a high payout ratio of 260.61%.

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW - Free Report) by 16.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,138,983 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 587,626 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned approximately 0.79% of Smurfit Westrock worth $186,485,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SW. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the first quarter valued at $1,051,299,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 51.6% during 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 in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 39.3% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,100,067 shares of the company's stock valued at $274,869,000 after purchasing an additional 1,721,889 shares in the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter valued at about $72,812,000. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 44.9% during the fourth quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 1,905,979 shares of the company's stock valued at $102,734,000 after purchasing an additional 590,895 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company's stock.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 4.6%

Shares of NYSE SW traded up $1.9970 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $45.6870. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,850,915 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,298,755. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.45. The stock has a market cap of $23.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 69.22 and a beta of 1.06. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 12 month low of $37.01 and a 12 month high of $56.99. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $44.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $45.17.

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

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $0.4308 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. Smurfit Westrock's payout ratio is 260.61%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on SW. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $57.00 to $56.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Truist Financial raised their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $63.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $57.78.

Smurfit Westrock Profile

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.