Northern Trust Corp Sells 249,514 Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Key Points

• Northern Trust Corp reduced its stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC by 5.5%, selling over 249,000 shares, and now holds approximately 0.82% of the company valued at $193 million.
• Institutional investors, including Vanguard and Nuveen, have increased their stakes, with Vanguard now owning 79 million shares valued at $3.56 billion.
• Smurfit Westrock announced a quarterly dividend of $0.4308 per share, representing an annualized yield of 3.9%.

Northern Trust Corp reduced its position in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW - Free Report) by 5.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,285,833 shares of the company's stock after selling 249,514 shares during the quarter. Northern Trust Corp owned about 0.82% of Smurfit Westrock worth $193,120,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of SW. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 316,074 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the first quarter valued at approximately $1,051,299,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted 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 during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 4.0% during 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 last quarter. Finally, 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 purchasing an additional 149,210 shares during the last quarter. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on SW. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Smurfit Westrock from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $44.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $63.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased 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 lifted their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Smurfit Westrock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $57.78.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of NYSE SW traded down $0.64 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $45.67. The stock had a trading volume of 4,055,133 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,479,274. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.45. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1 year low of $37.01 and a 1 year high of $56.99. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $45.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $45.06. The firm has a market cap of $23.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 69.19 and a beta of 1.06.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 analysts' expectations of $7.88 billion. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 167.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

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 $0.4308 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. Smurfit Westrock's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.