Allstate Corp Acquires Shares of 18,174 Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Allstate Corp bought a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 18,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $774,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the 2nd quarter worth about $749,735,000. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% during the second quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 18,400,418 shares of the company’s stock worth $793,978,000 after purchasing an additional 8,286,205 shares during the period. Ruffer LLP bought a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the second quarter worth approximately $196,095,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 4,580.7% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,861,635 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,250,000 after buying an additional 1,821,862 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 19.7% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,500,852 shares of the company’s stock valued at $366,812,000 after buying an additional 1,399,464 shares during the period. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Argus decreased their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.60.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

SW stock opened at $41.72 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $21.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.18 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.56. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1 year low of $32.73 and a 1 year high of $56.05.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $8 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.89 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.21% and a net margin of 2.40%.The firm’s revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th were issued a $0.4308 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 14th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 120.28%.

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.