Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Has $7.90 Million Position in Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc increased its holdings in Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW - Free Report) by 12.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 146,650 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 16,475 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc's holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $7,899,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SW. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 1.1% during the fourth 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 bought a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,300,041,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 18,439,852 shares of the company's stock valued at $993,170,000 after acquiring an additional 318,806 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 12.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,328,052 shares of the company's stock valued at $769,977,000 after acquiring an additional 1,594,939 shares during the period. Finally, FIL Ltd boosted its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 68.2% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 10,962,433 shares of the company's stock valued at $590,853,000 after acquiring an additional 4,444,704 shares during the period. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on SW. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $68.00 to $64.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $66.00 to $64.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $62.00 to $50.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $53.00 to $43.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $57.00 to $56.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Two equities research 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, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $58.20.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SW traded down $0.01 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $46.62. The company had a trading volume of 3,141,946 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,669,295. Smurfit Westrock Ltd has a 12 month low of $37.01 and a 12 month high of $56.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The firm has a market cap of $24.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 84.77 and a beta of 1.00. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $42.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $49.52.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.08. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 0.63% and a return on equity of 6.16%. The firm had revenue of $7.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.41 billion. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 161.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Smurfit Westrock Ltd will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be given a $0.4308 dividend. This represents a yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. Smurfit Westrock's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 140.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Irial Finan acquired 15,180 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $39.21 per share, with a total value of $595,207.80. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 54,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,152,354.53. This represents a 38.22% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ken Bowles sold 24,225 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.06, for a total transaction of $1,333,828.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 111,458 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,136,877.48. The trade was a 17.85% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company 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.