Clearline Capital LP Makes New $8.42 Million Investment in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Clearline Capital LP purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 217,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,418,000.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 31.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 36,127,677 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,397,057,000 after purchasing an additional 8,596,558 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,652,132 shares of the company’s stock valued at $953,311,000 after acquiring an additional 845,218 shares during the last quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd raised its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% during the second quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 18,400,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $793,978,000 after acquiring an additional 8,286,205 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,795,987 shares of the company’s stock valued at $531,483,000 after acquiring an additional 155,778 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter valued at about $495,335,000. 83.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on SW shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $53.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $53.00.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

SW stock opened at $43.48 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 cap of $22.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 60.39 and a beta of 0.96. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $40.72 and a 200 day moving average of $41.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $7.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.57 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 4.96% and a net margin of 1.22%.Smurfit Westrock’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.74 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.32 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a $0.4523 dividend. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date was 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.