South Dakota Investment Council Takes $3.33 Million Position in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

South Dakota Investment Council purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 78,257 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,331,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in SW. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the second quarter valued at about $749,735,000. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd increased its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% in the 2nd quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 18,400,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $793,978,000 after acquiring an additional 8,286,205 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 4,580.7% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,861,635 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,250,000 after acquiring an additional 1,821,862 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 19.7% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,500,852 shares of the company’s stock valued at $366,812,000 after acquiring an additional 1,399,464 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 80,421,330 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,472,329,000 after acquiring an additional 1,233,997 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Zacks Research raised Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Argus dropped their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Smurfit Westrock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.20.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SW opened at $45.25 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $43.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.59. The firm has a market cap of $23.72 billion, a PE ratio of 34.02 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1-year low of $32.73 and a 1-year high of $52.65.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.63 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 6.10%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.28 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The company 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. 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. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.0%. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is currently 136.09%.

Insider Activity at Smurfit Westrock

In related 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 transaction of $512,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 151,644 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,773,271.44. This represents a 6.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of 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. 0.49% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.