First Horizon Advisors Inc. Acquires 570 Shares of Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW)

First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW) by 448.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 697 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $38,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Stephens Inc. AR boosted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 5,616 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 49.1% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 695 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 229 shares in the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 117.7% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 516 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 279 shares in the last quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC increased its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 55,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,011,000 after acquiring an additional 299 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Contravisory Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,189 shares of the company’s stock valued at $764,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Alvaro Henao sold 4,000 shares of Smurfit Westrock stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.90, for a total transaction of $215,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 44,361 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,391,057.90. This trade represents a 8.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Ken Bowles sold 24,225 shares of Smurfit Westrock stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.06, for a total value of $1,333,828.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 111,458 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,136,877.48. This trade represents a 17.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 53,225 shares of company stock worth $2,920,429 over the last three months. 0.49% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on SW shares. Barclays lifted their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Truist Financial started coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price objective on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Argus began coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.70.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Down 3.3 %

Smurfit Westrock stock opened at $51.77 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $53.61 and a 200 day moving average of $50.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 94.13 and a beta of 1.02. Smurfit Westrock Ltd has a 12-month low of $38.55 and a 12-month high of $56.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

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

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $0.4308 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.33%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 312.73%.

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.