Sterling Capital Management LLC Sells 16,296 Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Sterling Capital Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 34.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 30,801 shares of the company’s stock after selling 16,296 shares during the period. Sterling Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $1,227,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the fourth quarter valued at $495,335,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 31.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 36,127,677 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,397,057,000 after purchasing an additional 8,596,558 shares during the period. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd boosted its stake 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 valued at $793,978,000 after purchasing an additional 8,286,205 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG boosted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 272.0% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 11,240,153 shares of the company’s stock valued at $478,493,000 after purchasing an additional 8,218,351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 8,132.7% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,724,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $221,351,000 after buying an additional 5,654,571 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Down 1.8%

NYSE:SW opened at $46.13 on Tuesday. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a one year low of $32.73 and a one year high of $52.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.06, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 0.96.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its 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). Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.22% and a return on equity of 4.96%. The business had revenue of $7.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.74 EPS. Smurfit Westrock’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were given 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 of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 250.00%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SW has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 20th. Citigroup decreased their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $53.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Truist Financial set a $50.00 price target on Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $53.33.

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.