Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW Stake Increased by Swiss National Bank

Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 7.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,532,397 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 101,500 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $61,066,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 93.1% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,208 shares of the company’s stock worth $128,000 after acquiring an additional 1,547 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 21,632 shares of the company’s stock valued at $868,000 after purchasing an additional 495 shares in the last quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 14.1% during the first quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 13,083 shares of the company’s stock worth $521,000 after purchasing an additional 1,620 shares during the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC grew its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 37.6% in the first quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 13,406 shares of the company’s stock worth $534,000 after purchasing an additional 3,662 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MASTERINVEST Kapitalanlage GmbH acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the first quarter worth about $1,073,000. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on SW. Weiss Ratings upgraded Smurfit Westrock from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $49.00 price target for the company. Truist Financial upped their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated 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. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.83.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Shares of SW stock opened at $43.06 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $22.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.81, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.95. The business has a 50 day moving average of $42.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $42.48. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 52 week low of $32.73 and a 52 week high of $52.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.

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

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.2%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 250.00%.

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.