Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW Shares Purchased by Barclays PLC

Barclays PLC boosted its stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 152.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 5,269,743 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,180,531 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $224,333,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 1.6% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 80,421,330 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,472,329,000 after purchasing an additional 1,233,997 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,779,789 shares of the company’s stock worth $896,661,000 after buying an additional 339,787 shares during the period. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd increased its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% during the 2nd quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 18,400,418 shares of the company’s stock worth $793,978,000 after buying an additional 8,286,205 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the 2nd quarter worth $749,735,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,693,951 shares of the company’s stock worth $370,101,000 after buying an additional 193,099 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SW opened at $42.91 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.49 billion, a PE ratio of 32.26 and a beta of 1.06. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1-year low of $32.73 and a 1-year high of $52.65. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $44.09 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $41.61.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.34 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.63 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.28 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. This is a positive change from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 136.09%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of Smurfit Westrock stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.26, for a total transaction of $512,600.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 151,644 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,773,271.44. The trade was a 6.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.54, for a total value of $2,061,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,642,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $84,660,119.40. This represents a 2.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Monday, December 29th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $58.00 price objective on Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Argus dropped their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 9th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Smurfit Westrock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.