Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW Shares Bought by Czech National Bank

Czech National Bank lifted its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 6.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 121,218 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 7,657 shares during the period. Czech National Bank’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $5,231,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 79,187,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,564,678,000 after buying an additional 316,074 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,051,299,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,244,072 shares of the company’s stock valued at $461,598,000 after buying an additional 395,015 shares during the period. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd raised its position 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 valued at $455,746,000 after buying an additional 4,329,653 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position 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 during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

NYSE:SW opened at $44.23 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $23.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.02 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $45.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $44.24. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 52 week low of $37.01 and a 52 week high of $56.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $7.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.88 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 5.90% and a net margin of 1.14%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 167.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

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