BNP Paribas Financial Markets Purchases 24,974 Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 2.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 986,592 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,974 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets’ holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $44,456,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 79,187,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,564,678,000 after purchasing an additional 316,074 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the first quarter valued at $1,051,299,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 51.6% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 20,720,312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,115,996,000 after acquiring an additional 7,050,781 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 4.0% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,244,072 shares of the company’s stock valued at $461,598,000 after acquiring an additional 395,015 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 9,003,480 shares of the company’s stock valued at $484,927,000 after acquiring an additional 149,210 shares in the last quarter. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:SW opened at $47.38 on Monday. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 52 week low of $37.01 and a 52 week high of $56.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 71.79 and a beta of 1.04. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $45.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $44.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.12). Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 5.90% and a net margin of 1.14%.The business had revenue of $7.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.88 billion. Smurfit Westrock’s quarterly revenue was up 167.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be paid a $0.4308 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 260.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on SW. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $44.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $63.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.78.

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.