Sapience Investments LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW)

Sapience Investments LLC decreased its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW) by 31.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,174 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,282 shares during the period. Sapience Investments LLC’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $494,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 117.7% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 516 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 279 shares during the last quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators purchased a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Spire Wealth Management bought a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 49.1% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 695 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 229 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

NYSE:SW opened at $46.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 1.37. Smurfit Westrock Ltd has a 52-week low of $37.01 and a 52-week high of $56.99. The firm has a market cap of $24.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 84.77 and a beta of 1.00. The business’s fifty day moving average is $42.89 and its 200 day moving average is $49.52.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.08. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.16% and a net margin of 0.63%. The company had revenue of $7.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.41 billion. Smurfit Westrock’s revenue was up 161.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Smurfit Westrock Ltd will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $57.00 to $56.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays dropped their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $68.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $53.00 to $43.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $62.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, 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 report on Tuesday, March 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Smurfit Westrock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Smurfit Westrock news, Director Irial Finan bought 15,180 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $39.21 per share, for a total transaction of $595,207.80. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Alvaro Henao sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.90, for a total value of $215,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 44,361 shares in the company, valued at $2,391,057.90. This represents a 8.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

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.