Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Lowers Stock Holdings in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio decreased its holdings in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 5.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 161,751 shares of the company’s stock after selling 9,479 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $6,980,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SW. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 24.3% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 114,732 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,179,000 after purchasing an additional 22,430 shares during the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank increased its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 18,661 shares of the company’s stock valued at $841,000 after purchasing an additional 1,287 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in Smurfit Westrock by 54.0% during the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 273 shares during the period. Moody National Bank Trust Division grew its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 7.5% during the 1st quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 14,746 shares of the company’s stock worth $664,000 after acquiring an additional 1,028 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 3,720.2% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 258,014 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,626,000 after buying an additional 251,260 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of SW opened at $42.13 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $22.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.84 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1 year low of $37.01 and a 1 year high of $56.99. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $44.13.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last issued its 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). The company had revenue of $7.94 billion for 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%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 167.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a dividend of $0.4308 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.1%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 260.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SW has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group assumed coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Monday, September 15th. They set a “buy” rating and a $60.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $63.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Nine investment 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.com, Smurfit Westrock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.00.

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.