Handelsbanken Fonder AB Acquires 36,900 Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 23.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 194,600 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 36,900 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $9,002,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 23.1% in the 2nd quarter. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 31,416 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,453,000 after buying an additional 5,905 shares in the last quarter. Kwmg LLC raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Kwmg LLC now owns 154,330 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,139,000 after buying an additional 5,444 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 149,283 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,906,000 after buying an additional 7,009 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 31.4% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 25,213 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,166,000 after acquiring an additional 6,022 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Smurfit Westrock by 5.8% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 11,963 shares of the company’s stock worth $553,000 after acquiring an additional 656 shares in the last quarter. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Up 1.6%

Shares of NYSE:SW opened at $50.04 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $45.38 and its 200-day moving average price is $43.22. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 12-month low of $32.73 and a 12-month high of $52.65.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $8.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.93 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.59% and a return on equity of 4.60%. The company’s revenue was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.05) EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be paid a $0.4523 dividend. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 14th. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is 192.55%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Seaport Research Partners reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $54.00 target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Wednesday. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Smurfit Westrock from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Citigroup increased their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Loop Capital set a $71.00 price objective on Smurfit Westrock in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.62.

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.