SG Americas Securities LLC Acquires 402,911 Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 264.5% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 555,264 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 402,911 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $22,127,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SW. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 31.2% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,652,132 shares of the company’s stock worth $953,311,000 after buying an additional 845,218 shares during the last quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% during 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,795,987 shares of the company’s stock worth $531,483,000 after buying an additional 155,778 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter valued at about $495,335,000. 83.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on SW. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Truist Financial set a $50.00 price target on Smurfit Westrock in a report on Friday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $49.00 price target for the company. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Friday, May 29th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $53.33.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

NYSE SW opened at $46.50 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The company has a market capitalization of $24.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.58 and a beta of 0.96. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 12-month low of $32.73 and a 12-month high of $52.65. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $41.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.55.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $7.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 period in the prior year, the business posted $0.74 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th were paid a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 251.39%.

Smurfit Westrock 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.