Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) Shares Purchased by Vanguard Group Inc.

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC to 79,187,333 shares, valuing their holdings at approximately $3.56 billion at the end of the first quarter.
• Smurfit Westrock reported earnings of $0.45 per share for the last quarter, missing analyst estimates, while revenue rose significantly by 167.4% compared to the previous year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.4308 per share, with an annualized yield of 3.9% and a payout ratio of 260.61%.

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW - Free Report) by 0.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 79,187,333 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 316,074 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 15.17% of Smurfit Westrock worth $3,564,678,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SW. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 40.6% in the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 42,104 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,268,000 after purchasing an additional 12,166 shares during the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 247,964 shares of the company's stock valued at $13,355,000 after purchasing an additional 2,203 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 53.8% in the 4th quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 692,054 shares of the company's stock valued at $37,274,000 after purchasing an additional 242,011 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 182,229 shares of the company's stock valued at $9,801,000 after buying an additional 8,152 shares during the period. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 17.3% in the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 26,674 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,409,000 after buying an additional 3,926 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.38% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target 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 target on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Barclays reduced their target price 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. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Smurfit Westrock from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the company from $44.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Monday, June 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $58.00.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Shares of SW traded up $0.80 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $44.22. 795,779 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,678,079. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.93 and a beta of 1.06. 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 PLC has a twelve month low of $37.01 and a twelve month high of $56.99. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $44.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $45.75.

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

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.9%. Smurfit Westrock's payout ratio is currently 260.61%.

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.