Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW Shares Acquired by Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc.

Key Points

• Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Smurfit Westrock PLC by 4.1% in Q1, owning 198,806 shares worth approximately $8.96 million.
• Several institutional investors, including Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG and NewEdge Advisors LLC, have significantly increased their stakes, with hedge funds now owning 83.38% of the company's stock.
• Smurfit Westrock is projected to post $3.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year, despite a recent earnings miss of $0.12 against analysts' estimates.

Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW - Free Report) by 4.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 198,806 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 7,900 shares during the quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $8,958,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in SW. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,051,299,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its position in Smurfit Westrock by 51.6% in the fourth 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 during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Smurfit Westrock by 39.3% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,100,067 shares of the company's stock worth $274,869,000 after acquiring an additional 1,721,889 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the fourth quarter worth approximately $72,812,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Smurfit Westrock by 32.7% in the fourth 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.38% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SW has been the subject of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $57.00 to $56.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Smurfit Westrock from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $44.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $63.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $57.78.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 4.6%

Shares of SW traded up $1.9970 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $45.6870. 4,850,915 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,298,755. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 52-week low of $37.01 and a 52-week high of $56.99. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $44.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $45.24. The firm has a market cap of $23.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 69.22 and a beta of 1.06. 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 (NYSE:SW - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $7.88 billion. The business's quarterly revenue was up 167.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 EPS 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 dividend of $0.4308 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. Smurfit Westrock's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.