Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. Purchases 8,600 Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 90,450 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,600 shares during the period. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $3,903,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 0.4% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,051,299,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 4.0% in the 1st 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 during the period. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 74.8% during the 1st quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 10,114,213 shares of the company’s stock worth $455,746,000 after buying an additional 4,329,653 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 19.7% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,500,852 shares of the company’s stock worth $366,812,000 after purchasing an additional 1,399,464 shares during the period. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Down 2.5%

SW stock opened at $34.21 on Friday. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1-year low of $33.71 and a 1-year high of $56.99. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $41.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $43.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The stock has a market cap of $17.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.92 and a beta of 1.11.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.10). Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 2.40% and a return on equity of 6.21%. The company had revenue of $8 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.89 billion. Smurfit Westrock’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be paid a $0.4308 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 14th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.0%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 120.28%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. UBS Group started coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Monday, September 15th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $60.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $52.00 price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $55.30.

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.