Foresight Group Ltd Liability Partnership Buys New Stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Key Points

• Foresight Group Ltd Liability Partnership acquired 577,630 shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC, worth approximately $26 million, making it the 11th largest position in their portfolio.
• Several hedge funds recently bought stakes in Smurfit Westrock, with institutional investors now owning 83.38% of the company.
• Analysts have set new price targets for Smurfit Westrock, with Jefferies upgrading the stock to a "buy" rating and raising the price objective to $55.00.

Foresight Group Ltd Liability Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 577,630 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $26,028,000. Smurfit Westrock accounts for about 3.8% of Foresight Group Ltd Liability Partnership's investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Foresight Group Ltd Liability Partnership owned approximately 0.11% of Smurfit Westrock at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in SW. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 79,187,333 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,564,678,000 after acquiring an additional 316,074 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,051,299,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 51.6% during the 4th 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. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 4.0% during the 1st 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. Finally, Orbis Allan Gray Ltd boosted its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 74.8% during the first quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 10,114,213 shares of the company's stock worth $455,746,000 after buying an additional 4,329,653 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.38% of the company's stock.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Down 0.5%

SW stock traded down $0.22 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $44.25. The company had a trading volume of 1,406,432 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,734,540. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1 year low of $37.01 and a 1 year high of $56.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The company has a market capitalization of $23.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 66.99 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a 50 day moving average of $45.62 and a two-hundred day moving average of $44.28.

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

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be given a $0.4308 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 15th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Smurfit Westrock's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 260.61%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on SW shares. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Morgan Stanley upped 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, July 8th. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Monday. They issued a "buy" rating and a $60.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Smurfit Westrock from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $44.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $58.00.

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.