Voya Investment Management LLC Sells 23,514 Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Voya Investment Management LLC cut its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 11.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 184,624 shares of the company’s stock after selling 23,514 shares during the quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $8,319,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT purchased a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the 1st quarter worth $29,000. IMA Advisory Services Inc. bought a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the first quarter valued at about $30,000. Tsfg LLC purchased a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the first quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 54.0% in the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on SW shares. Barclays cut their target price 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. Wells Fargo & Company lifted 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 report on Thursday, July 31st. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $55.00 in a report on Monday, June 16th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price 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. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.00.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of SW opened at $44.03 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $45.49 and its 200 day moving average is $44.28. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a fifty-two week low of $37.01 and a fifty-two week high of $56.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.99 billion, a PE ratio of 66.71 and a beta of 1.04. 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) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 1.14% and a return on equity of 5.90%. The business had revenue of $7.94 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.88 billion. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 167.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.4308 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is presently 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.