Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) CFO Ken Bowles Sells 10,000 Shares of Stock

Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $7,773,271.44. This represents a 6.19% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Smurfit Westrock stock opened at $48.71 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a twelve month low of $32.73 and a twelve month high of $54.00. The company has a market capitalization of $25.45 billion, a PE ratio of 36.62 and a beta of 1.09.

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

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 is an increase 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 yield of 3.7%. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is presently 136.09%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on SW. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Monday, December 29th. Zacks Research raised shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Truist Financial set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $58.00 target price on Smurfit Westrock in a research note 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.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.20.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Smurfit Westrock

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of SW. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 90.5% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 13,425 shares of the company’s stock valued at $593,000 after acquiring an additional 6,378 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC lifted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 6.7% in the 1st quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 5,501 shares of the company’s stock valued at $248,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 5.9% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 48,559 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,188,000 after purchasing an additional 2,698 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 192.3% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 13,264 shares of the company’s stock worth $598,000 after purchasing an additional 8,726 shares during the period. Finally, Woodline Partners LP grew its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 40.8% in the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 41,772 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,882,000 after purchasing an additional 12,096 shares during the period. 83.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.