Anthony Smurfit Sells 40,000 Shares of Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) Stock

Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) CEO Anthony Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.54, for a total transaction of $2,061,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,642,610 shares in the company, valued at approximately $84,660,119.40. This represents a 2.38% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Down 2.1%

Smurfit Westrock stock opened at $48.71 on Friday. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 12 month low of $32.73 and a 12 month high of $54.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The stock has a market cap of $25.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.62 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $42.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.45.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $7.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.63 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.10% and a net margin of 2.24%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.28 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be paid a $0.4523 dividend. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. This is a boost from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 135.34%.

Institutional Trading of Smurfit Westrock

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. boosted its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 113.3% in the third quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 640 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares during the period. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC bought a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the 2nd quarter worth about $29,000. DV Equities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A. acquired a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Root Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the third quarter valued at about $33,000. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on SW. Argus lowered their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Zacks Research raised Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 9th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays upped their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.20.

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.