First Trust Advisors LP Boosts Holdings in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 30.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,751,085 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 406,868 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 0.33% of Smurfit Westrock worth $69,781,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of SW. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the 4th quarter worth approximately $495,335,000. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 31.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 36,127,677 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,397,057,000 after purchasing an additional 8,596,558 shares during the last quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% in the 2nd quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 18,400,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $793,978,000 after buying an additional 8,286,205 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 8,132.7% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,724,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $221,351,000 after buying an additional 5,654,571 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ruffer LLP grew its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 473.3% during the 4th quarter. Ruffer LLP now owns 4,504,151 shares of the company’s stock valued at $174,447,000 after buying an additional 3,718,562 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SW has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group dropped their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Zacks Research upgraded Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $57.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays dropped their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.83.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Up 11.3%

Shares of NYSE SW opened at $48.67 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $25.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 67.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.44. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1 year low of $32.73 and a 1 year high of $52.65. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $42.89 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.60.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.03). Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.22% and a return on equity of 4.96%. The business had revenue of $7.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.74 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th were given a $0.4523 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.7%. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is currently 251.39%.

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.