Ameriprise Financial Inc. Has $323.06 Million Stock Holdings in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 1.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,588,946 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 94,782 shares during the quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned about 1.45% of Smurfit Westrock worth $323,061,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of SW. Norges Bank bought a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the 2nd quarter valued at about $749,735,000. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd grew its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% in the second quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 18,400,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $793,978,000 after purchasing an additional 8,286,205 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG grew its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 272.0% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 11,240,153 shares of the company’s stock valued at $478,493,000 after purchasing an additional 8,218,351 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 94.4% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 11,353,140 shares of the company’s stock worth $482,917,000 after purchasing an additional 5,511,887 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 152.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,269,743 shares of the company’s stock worth $224,333,000 after purchasing an additional 3,180,531 shares during the period. 83.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

Smurfit Westrock stock opened at $39.43 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $20.67 billion, a PE ratio of 29.65 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 $44.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $41.40. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a one year low of $32.73 and a one year high of $52.65.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released its 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 company had revenue of $7.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.63 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 6.10%. The business’s revenue was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.28 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Anthony P. J. 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,642,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $84,660,119.40. This represents a 2.38% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of the 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 sale, the chief financial officer owned 151,644 shares in the company, valued at $7,773,271.44. This represents a 6.19% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.49% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group set a $58.00 price target on Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 6th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $57.10.

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.