Capital Research Global Investors Has $1.17 Billion Stock Holdings in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Capital Research Global Investors decreased its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 0.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,531,119 shares of the company’s stock after selling 140,754 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors owned about 0.05% of Smurfit Westrock worth $1,172,000,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH increased its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 8.3% in the third quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 970,595 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,762,000 after buying an additional 74,360 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 7.0% during the 2nd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 520,366 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,454,000 after acquiring an additional 34,088 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 42.9% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,239,822 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,779,000 after buying an additional 372,177 shares during the period. Exane Asset Management boosted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 35.4% during the 3rd quarter. Exane Asset Management now owns 345,393 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,703,000 after acquiring an additional 90,233 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marathon Asset Management Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 3rd quarter valued at $10,360,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SW has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Truist Financial set a $60.00 target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Monday, December 29th. Argus reduced their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Zacks Research upgraded Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.10.

Insider Activity

In other Smurfit Westrock news, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,642,610 shares in the company, valued at $84,660,119.40. This represents a 2.38% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 $7,773,271.44. This trade represents a 6.19% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

NYSE:SW opened at $42.11 on Tuesday. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a fifty-two week low of $32.73 and a fifty-two week high of $52.65. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $44.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.58. The company has a market capitalization of $22.07 billion, a PE ratio of 31.66 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.48.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.63 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.10% and a net margin of 2.24%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.28 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC 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 Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be given a $0.4523 dividend. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. This is an increase from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is currently 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.