Capital International Investors Makes New Investment in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Capital International Investors bought a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 388,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,540,000. Capital International Investors owned approximately 0.07% of Smurfit Westrock at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 113.3% in the 3rd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 640 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC bought a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the second quarter valued at about $29,000. Root Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the third quarter valued at about $33,000. Rexford Capital Inc. purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the second quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Groupe la Francaise bought a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the second quarter worth about $51,000. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SW has been the subject of several analyst reports. Truist Financial set a $60.00 price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Argus cut their price objective 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. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 6th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 9th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.10.

Insider Transactions at Smurfit Westrock

In related news, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.54, for a total value of $2,061,600.00. Following 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.26, for a total transaction of $512,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 151,644 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,773,271.44. This represents a 6.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

NYSE SW opened at $39.75 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $20.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.89 and a beta of 1.06. 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’s fifty day moving average price is $44.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $41.56. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1 year low of $32.73 and a 1 year high of $52.65.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.34 EPS 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 analyst estimates of $7.63 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.10% and a net margin of 2.24%.The business’s revenue was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.6%. This is a positive change from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 136.09%.

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.