Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) Issues Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.12 EPS

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) posted its earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.46 by ($0.12), FiscalAI reports. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.10% and a net margin of 2.24%.The business had revenue of $7.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.63 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.28 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .5% on a year-over-year basis.

Here are the key takeaways from Smurfit Westrock’s conference call:

• Smurfit Westrock reported record-scale results with Q4 Adjusted EBITDA $1.172bn and FY Adjusted EBITDA $4.939bn, generated over $1.5bn of adjusted free cash flow for the year, reduced leverage to 2.6x, raised the dividend 5%, and received a Fitch upgrade to BBB+.
• North America faced pronounced headwinds — sharp volume declines, portfolio pruning (≈1.2bn sqm of lost business), mill downtime that cost ~$85m in Q4 (~$220m for the year), and the announced La Tuque SBS closure — pressuring near-term utilization and earnings.
• The company unveiled a bottom-up medium-term plan targeting ~$7bn Adjusted EBITDA by 2030, about $14bn adjusted free cash flow (2026–2030), ~$13bn cumulative CapEx (focused on high-return projects), ~$5bn of dividends and share buybacks beginning 2027, and a path toward ~2x leverage.
• Management is executing strategic commercial and operational changes — owner-operator model, shedding uneconomic contracts, experience centers and AI InnoTools for value-selling — and says roughly half the lost North American volume is already being replaced by higher‑quality pipeline business to drive margin recovery.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Shares of SW opened at $51.64 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.93 and a beta of 1.09. Smurfit Westrock has a 52 week low of $32.73 and a 52 week high of $55.49. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $40.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.48.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.4523 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.5%. This is an increase from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 120.28%.

Institutional Trading of Smurfit Westrock

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC bought a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the second quarter valued at about $29,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC purchased a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. McMillan Office Inc. bought a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd increased its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 4,585.0% during the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 937 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 917 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MUFG Securities EMEA plc purchased a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the second quarter valued at approximately $63,000. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on SW. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $58.00 target price on Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Thursday. Truist Financial set a $60.00 price target on Smurfit Westrock in a report on Thursday. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.30.

About Smurfit Westrock

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.