Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) CEO Sells 40,000 Shares

Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) CEO Anthony Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.54, for a total value of $2,061,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $84,660,119.40. The trade was a 2.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Down 2.3%

Shares of SW traded down $1.13 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $48.65. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,131,918 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,623,356. The company’s 50 day moving average is $42.37 and its 200 day moving average is $41.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market cap of $25.41 billion, a PE ratio of 36.63 and a beta of 1.09. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 12-month low of $32.73 and a 12-month high of $54.00.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.63 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 6.10%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.28 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This is a boost from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.7%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 136.09%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on SW. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Truist Financial set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $61.00 target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Wednesday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.20.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Smurfit Westrock

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 80,421,330 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,472,329,000 after acquiring an additional 1,233,997 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings 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 period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,652,132 shares of the company’s stock worth $953,311,000 after purchasing an additional 845,218 shares during the period. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd grew its position in Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% in the 2nd quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 18,400,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $793,978,000 after buying an additional 8,286,205 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the 2nd quarter valued at about $749,735,000. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.