Treasurer of the State of North Carolina Raises Stock Position in Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW)

Treasurer of the State of North Carolina increased its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW) by 3.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 233,445 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,550 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $12,573,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SW. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Versant Capital Management Inc acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 117.7% in the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 516 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 279 shares during the last quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Spire Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SW has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $53.00 to $43.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $66.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Truist Financial started coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 target price for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.00.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

SW opened at $40.81 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $47.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $50.22. Smurfit Westrock Ltd has a fifty-two week low of $37.01 and a fifty-two week high of $56.99. The firm has a market cap of $21.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 74.20 and a beta of 1.00.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by ($0.33). Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.16% and a net margin of 0.63%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock Ltd will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $0.4308 per share. This is an increase from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.22%. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is 312.73%.

Insider Transactions at Smurfit Westrock

In other Smurfit Westrock news, insider Ken Bowles sold 24,225 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.06, for a total transaction of $1,333,828.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 111,458 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,136,877.48. The trade was a 17.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Alvaro Henao sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.90, for a total value of $215,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 44,361 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,391,057.90. The trade was a 8.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

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.