Legal & General Group Plc Purchases 770,812 Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 23.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,116,572 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 770,812 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.79% of Smurfit Westrock worth $174,473,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. grew its position in Smurfit Westrock by 113.3% in the third 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 acquired a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. Root Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Rexford Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the 2nd quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Groupe la Francaise acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 2nd quarter valued at $51,000. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on SW shares. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 6th. Citigroup upped their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Truist Financial set a $60.00 price objective on Smurfit Westrock in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.10.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Smurfit Westrock news, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of Smurfit Westrock stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,642,610 shares in the company, valued at $84,660,119.40. The trade was a 2.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 151,644 shares in the company, valued at $7,773,271.44. This trade 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 insiders.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Down 5.8%

Shares of SW opened at $39.75 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $44.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $41.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.89 and a beta of 1.06. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 12-month low of $32.73 and a 12-month high of $52.65.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $7.63 billion. Smurfit Westrock’s revenue was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.28 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict 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 given a $0.4523 dividend. This represents a $1.81 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.6%. 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. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.