Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW Shares Acquired by Janus Henderson Group PLC

Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 11.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 212,511 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 21,388 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $8,350,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the fourth quarter valued at $495,335,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted 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 valued at $1,397,057,000 after purchasing an additional 8,596,558 shares in the last quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 8,286,205 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 worth $221,351,000 after purchasing an additional 5,654,571 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ruffer LLP lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 473.3% during the fourth quarter. Ruffer LLP now owns 4,504,151 shares of the company’s stock valued at $174,447,000 after purchasing an additional 3,718,562 shares during the last quarter. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on SW shares. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $65.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $57.00 price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.62.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

SW stock opened at $48.44 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $44.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $42.96. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 12 month low of $32.73 and a 12 month high of $52.65. The company has a market capitalization of $25.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.54, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.07). Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.59% and a return on equity of 4.60%. The business had revenue of $8.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.05) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This represents a $1.81 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 14th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 192.55%.

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.