Capital Group Private Client Services Inc. Purchases New Stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Capital Group Private Client Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 16,692 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $711,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. grew its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 113.3% during the 3rd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 640 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares during the period. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the second quarter valued at about $29,000. Root Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the third quarter valued at about $33,000. Rexford Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the second quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Groupe la Francaise acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the second quarter worth about $51,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on SW shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of 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 reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Monday, December 29th. 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 report on Thursday, February 12th. Argus dropped their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.10.

Insider Buying and Selling at Smurfit Westrock

In related news, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $7,773,271.44. This trade represents a 6.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of Smurfit Westrock stock in a transaction dated 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 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.49% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of SW opened at $42.75 on Wednesday. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $44.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.56. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1-year low of $32.73 and a 1-year high of $52.65. The stock has a market cap of $22.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.15 and a beta of 1.06.

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

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be given a $0.4523 dividend. This is an increase from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.81 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 136.09%.

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.