Voya Investment Management LLC Trims Stock Position in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Key Points

• Voya Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC by 11.3%, selling 23,514 shares, which leaves them with 184,624 shares valued at approximately $8.32 million.
• Analysts have varying outlooks on Smurfit Westrock, with Barclays lowering their target price from $64.00 to $63.00 while Wells Fargo raised theirs from $45.00 to $46.00, showcasing diverse opinions in the market.
• Smurfit Westrock announced a quarterly dividend of $0.4308 per share, representing a yield of 3.9%, with a significant payout ratio of 260.61% noted.

Voya Investment Management LLC trimmed its stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW - Free Report) by 11.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 184,624 shares of the company's stock after selling 23,514 shares during the period. Voya Investment Management LLC's holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $8,319,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of SW. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 acquiring an additional 316,074 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the first quarter worth $1,051,299,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 4.0% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,244,072 shares of the company's stock worth $461,598,000 after acquiring an additional 395,015 shares during the period. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 74.8% in the first quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 10,114,213 shares of the company's stock worth $455,746,000 after acquiring an additional 4,329,653 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 39.3% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,100,067 shares of the company's stock valued at $274,869,000 after buying an additional 1,721,889 shares in the last quarter. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on SW. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Smurfit Westrock from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $44.00 to $55.00 in a report on Monday, June 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Truist Financial lifted 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 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, UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Monday, September 15th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $60.00 price target on the stock. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $58.00.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

SW traded down $0.33 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $43.84. 19,817,702 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,202,425. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.89 billion, a PE ratio of 66.42 and a beta of 1.04. The company's 50-day moving average is $45.35 and its 200 day moving average is $44.17. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 52 week low of $37.01 and a 52 week high of $56.99.

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

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a dividend of $0.4308 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. Smurfit Westrock's dividend payout ratio 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.