Strs Ohio Invests $1.56 Million in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Strs Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 34,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,562,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SW. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,051,299,000. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 74.8% during the 1st 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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 worth $274,869,000 after acquiring an additional 1,721,889 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the 4th quarter worth approximately $72,812,000. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 16.1% in the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,689,254 shares of the company’s stock valued at $256,358,000 after purchasing an additional 788,082 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on SW. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $44.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Monday, June 16th. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Monday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $60.00 price objective for the company. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $63.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Smurfit Westrock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.00.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Down 0.4%

Smurfit Westrock stock opened at $44.28 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $45.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $44.28. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1-year low of $37.01 and a 1-year high of $56.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.09 and a beta of 1.04.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.12). Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.14% and a return on equity of 5.90%. The firm had revenue of $7.94 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.88 billion. Smurfit Westrock’s quarterly revenue was up 167.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.