US Bancorp DE Decreases Holdings in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

US Bancorp DE trimmed its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 21.5% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 13,575 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,721 shares during the quarter. US Bancorp DE’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $586,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT purchased a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the first quarter worth about $29,000. IMA Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the first quarter worth about $30,000. Tsfg LLC purchased a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the first quarter worth about $30,000. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the first quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, SVB Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the first quarter worth about $49,000. 83.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on SW. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Monday, September 15th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $60.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $57.90.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Smurfit Westrock stock opened at $41.51 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.79. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1-year low of $37.01 and a 1-year high of $56.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market cap of $21.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.89 and a beta of 1.09.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.12). Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.14% and a return on equity of 5.90%. The firm had revenue of $7.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.88 billion. Smurfit Westrock’s revenue for the quarter was up 167.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were given a dividend of $0.4308 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.2%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 260.61%.

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.