Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Sells 6,440 Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW)

Key Points

• Westwood Holdings Group Inc. reduced its stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC by 17.1%, selling 6,440 shares and now holding a total of 31,313 shares worth $1,411,000.
• The company's quarterly earnings report showed an earnings per share of $0.45, falling short of the consensus estimate of $0.57, while revenue surged 167.4% year-over-year to $7.94 billion.
• Smurfit Westrock declared a quarterly dividend of $0.4308, with a dividend yield of 3.9%, and currently has a payout ratio of 260.61%.

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lowered its holdings in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW - Free Report) by 17.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 31,313 shares of the company's stock after selling 6,440 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.'s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $1,411,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 8.9% during the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 2,308 shares of the company's stock worth $124,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 6,771 shares of the company's stock worth $364,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 15,866 shares of the company's stock worth $855,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 5,763 shares of the company's stock worth $310,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 54.0% during the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 779 shares of the company's stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 273 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company's stock.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of NYSE:SW traded up $0.79 on Tuesday, reaching $44.21. 795,779 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,678,079. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $44.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $45.75. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 52 week low of $37.01 and a 52 week high of $56.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 66.93 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 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 business had revenue of $7.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.88 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 5.90% and a net margin of 1.14%. Smurfit Westrock's revenue was up 167.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The business 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 $0.4308 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Smurfit Westrock's dividend payout ratio is currently 260.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SW has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $63.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Smurfit Westrock from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $44.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $58.00.

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.