626 Financial LLC Reduces Stake in Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW)

626 Financial LLC reduced its stake in Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW) by 5.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,241 shares of the company’s stock after selling 934 shares during the quarter. 626 Financial LLC’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $732,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 78,871,259 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,249,613,000 after acquiring an additional 820,362 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,300,041,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 51.6% in the 4th 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 during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 1.8% in the 4th 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 during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 12.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,328,052 shares of the company’s stock valued at $769,977,000 after buying an additional 1,594,939 shares during the period. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Up 1.1%

Smurfit Westrock stock opened at $43.05 on Friday. 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 $37.01 and a 1-year high of $56.99. The company has a market cap of $22.47 billion, a PE ratio of 78.27 and a beta of 1.04. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $42.62 and its 200 day moving average price is $48.76.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $7.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.41 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.16% and a net margin of 0.63%. The firm’s revenue was up 161.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Smurfit Westrock Ltd will post 3.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be given a $0.4308 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a dividend yield of 3.7%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 140.98%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Irial Finan purchased 15,180 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $39.21 per share, for a total transaction of $595,207.80. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 54,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,152,354.53. The trade was a 38.22% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on SW shares. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $66.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $62.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Barclays decreased their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $68.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $57.00 to $56.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $53.00 to $43.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.20.

Smurfit Westrock Company 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.