Norges Bank Acquires New Position in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 12,813,255 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $495,335,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sound Income Strategies LLC raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 79,790.6% during the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 127,825 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,459,000 after purchasing an additional 127,665 shares in the last quarter. BIP Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,412,000. Tounjian Advisory Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 3rd quarter valued at about $958,000. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 152.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,269,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $224,333,000 after purchasing an additional 3,180,531 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Distillate Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 3rd quarter valued at about $15,001,000. 83.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 0.0%

NYSE SW opened at $41.15 on Monday. 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 firm has a market cap of $21.58 billion, a PE ratio of 57.16 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $39.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.53. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 52 week low of $32.73 and a 52 week high of $52.65.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $7.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.74 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This represents a $1.81 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 251.39%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SW has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Wall Street Zen lowered Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Zacks Research raised Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.00.

About Smurfit Westrock

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.