Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Grows Stock Position in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 95.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 277,935 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 135,927 shares during the quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $10,746,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of SW. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. boosted its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 113.3% in the 3rd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 640 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares during the period. Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A. purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Root Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, MUFG Securities EMEA plc purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $63,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SW has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 1st. Zacks Research upgraded Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group decreased their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $49.00 price target for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 1st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $53.00.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Smurfit Westrock stock opened at $38.09 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $19.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.90 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $39.90 and a 200-day moving average of $40.39. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 52 week low of $32.73 and a 52 week high of $52.65.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released 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 analysts’ expectations of $7.57 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.22% and a return on equity of 4.96%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.74 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This represents a $1.81 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio 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.