Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW) Insider Sells $215,600.00 in Stock

Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW) insider Alvaro Henao sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now owns 44,361 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,391,057.90. This trade represents a 8.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:SW opened at $52.15 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $53.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 94.81 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.89. Smurfit Westrock Ltd has a 1 year low of $38.55 and a 1 year high of $56.99.

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 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $0.4308 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.30%. This is a positive change from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 312.73%.

Institutional Trading of Smurfit Westrock

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 78,871,259 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,249,613,000 after buying an additional 820,362 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,300,041,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 51.6% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 20,720,312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,115,996,000 after buying an additional 7,050,781 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp acquired a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the third quarter valued at approximately $967,582,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Smurfit Westrock by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 18,439,852 shares of the company’s stock valued at $993,170,000 after buying an additional 318,806 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on SW shares. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Truist Financial started coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 target price on the stock. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Argus started coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Thursday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 target price on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $60.70.

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.