National Pension Service Grows Stock Position in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Key Points

• The National Pension Service increased its stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC by 12.1%, owning approximately $37.99 million worth of shares after acquiring additional shares in the first quarter.
• Smurfit Westrock reported a 12-month low of $37.01 and a high of $56.99, with the stock showing a 2.4% decline recently.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.4308, reflecting an annualized yield of 4.0%, with a notably high payout ratio of 260.61%.

National Pension Service boosted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW - Free Report) by 12.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 843,136 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 90,824 shares during the period. National Pension Service owned approximately 0.16% of Smurfit Westrock worth $37,992,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in SW. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 127,600.0% during the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,277 shares of the company's stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 1,276 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 9,003,480 shares of the company's stock valued at $484,927,000 after buying an additional 149,210 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 106.3% during the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 11,709 shares of the company's stock valued at $528,000 after buying an additional 6,032 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 57,939 shares of the company's stock worth $2,610,000 after purchasing an additional 1,600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 36.5% in the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 5,038 shares of the company's stock worth $230,000 after buying an additional 1,346 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on SW. Barclays cut their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $63.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 30th. 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 report on Friday, May 2nd. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Smurfit Westrock from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $44.00 to $55.00 in a report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $58.00.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 3.7%

NYSE:SW traded up $1.5640 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $43.5140. 2,172,496 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,729,028. The firm's fifty day moving average is $44.90 and its 200-day moving average is $45.36. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 12-month low of $37.01 and a 12-month high of $56.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 65.94 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.

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

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors 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 yield of 4.0%. Smurfit Westrock's payout ratio is presently 260.61%.

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.