Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW Shares Bought by Natixis Advisors LLC

Natixis Advisors LLC grew its position in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 13.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 456,528 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 55,255 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $19,434,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in SW. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. Root Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the 3rd quarter worth $33,000. Rexford Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the 2nd quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Groupe la Francaise purchased a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the second quarter valued at about $51,000. 83.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, 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 value 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.54, for a total transaction of $2,061,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $84,660,119.40. This trade represents a 2.38% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Down 1.3%

Smurfit Westrock stock opened at $42.17 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $44.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.48. The company has a market cap of $22.11 billion, a PE ratio of 31.71 and a beta of 1.06. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a fifty-two week low of $32.73 and a fifty-two week high of $52.65.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.46 by ($0.12). Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.10% and a net margin of 2.24%.The firm had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.63 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.28 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be given a dividend of $0.4523 per share. 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 4.3%. This is a boost from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is 135.34%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SW has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Argus lowered their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley lowered 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 note 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, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.10.

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.