Manning & Napier Advisors LLC Trims Stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 47.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 79,552 shares of the company’s stock after selling 72,668 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $3,387,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of SW. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the second quarter worth approximately $749,735,000. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% in the 2nd quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 18,400,418 shares of the company’s stock worth $793,978,000 after buying an additional 8,286,205 shares during the last quarter. Ruffer LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the 2nd quarter valued at $196,095,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 4,580.7% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,861,635 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,250,000 after acquiring an additional 1,821,862 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 19.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,500,852 shares of the company’s stock worth $366,812,000 after acquiring an additional 1,399,464 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on SW. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $51.00 price target on Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Citigroup cut their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $49.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $51.60.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of SW stock opened at $42.72 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $37.29 and a 200 day moving average of $41.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 0.97. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1-year low of $32.73 and a 1-year high of $56.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.31 billion, a PE ratio of 29.88 and a beta of 1.09.

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

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th were given a dividend of $0.4308 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 14th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.0%. 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.