Empower Advisory Group LLC Buys New Shares in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW)

Key Points

• Empower Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock PLC, purchasing 6,465 shares valued at approximately $291,000.
• Smurfit Westrock reported a 12-month revenue increase of 167.4%, although it missed earnings expectations with an EPS of $0.45.
• The company's quarterly dividend of $0.4308 reflects an annualized yield of 3.9%, despite a payout ratio of 260.61%.

Empower Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 6,465 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $291,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 51.6% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 20,720,312 shares of the company's stock worth $1,115,996,000 after acquiring an additional 7,050,781 shares in the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter worth approximately $72,812,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 32.7% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,551,357 shares of the company's stock worth $191,269,000 after acquiring an additional 874,748 shares in the last quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI grew its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 44.9% in the 4th quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 1,905,979 shares of the company's stock worth $102,734,000 after acquiring an additional 590,895 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 6,783,941 shares of the company's stock valued at $365,383,000 after purchasing an additional 558,417 shares during the period. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SW has been the topic of a number of research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $57.00 to $56.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Barclays cut their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $63.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $58.00.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 1.8%

NYSE SW traded up $0.76 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $44.18. 795,779 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,678,079. The firm has a market cap of $23.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 66.93 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 stock has a fifty day moving average of $44.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $45.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW - Get Free Report) last released 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 for 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 company's revenue for the quarter was up 167.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.4308 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Smurfit Westrock's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 260.61%.

Smurfit Westrock Company 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.