Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Boosts Stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky grew its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 58.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 32,382 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,000 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $1,290,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of SW. Sound Income Strategies LLC raised its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 79,790.6% in the fourth quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 127,825 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,459,000 after buying an additional 127,665 shares during the period. BIP Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,412,000. AE Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 369,652 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,294,000 after buying an additional 30,804 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the fourth quarter worth $924,000. Finally, Diversified Trust Co. raised its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 135.0% in the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co. now owns 59,132 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,287,000 after acquiring an additional 33,966 shares during the period. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Up 1.6%

Shares of Smurfit Westrock stock opened at $43.58 on Thursday. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1-year low of $32.73 and a 1-year high of $52.65. The company has a market capitalization of $22.86 billion, a PE ratio of 60.53, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.95. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $42.30 and a 200-day moving average of $42.34.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released its quarterly 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.57 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 4.96% and a net margin of 1.22%.The company’s revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.74 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th were given a $0.4523 dividend. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 250.00%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings lowered Smurfit Westrock from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Barclays reduced their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $54.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $57.00 target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.58.

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.