376,677 Shares in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW Acquired by Ninety One UK Ltd

Key Points

• Ninety One UK Ltd established a new position of 376,677 shares in Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) during Q4, valued at approximately $14.55 million and representing about 0.07% of the company.
• Insiders trimmed holdings on Feb 19—CEO Anthony P.J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares and CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares—leaving insiders with roughly 0.46% ownership.
• Smurfit Westrock raised its quarterly dividend to $0.4523 (annualized $1.81), implying a ~4.3% yield, though the dividend payout ratio is high at 136%.

Ninety One UK Ltd purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 376,677 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $14,546,000. Ninety One UK Ltd owned 0.07% of Smurfit Westrock at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. International Private Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. International Private Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,152 shares of the company's stock worth $277,000 after purchasing an additional 245 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 6,776 shares of the company's stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 264 shares during the period. AXA S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 22,283 shares of the company's stock worth $962,000 after purchasing an additional 285 shares during the period. Mariner LLC raised its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 31,906 shares of the company's stock worth $1,358,000 after purchasing an additional 294 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Planning raised its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 7,082 shares of the company's stock worth $301,000 after purchasing an additional 338 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.26, for a total transaction of $512,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 151,644 shares in the company, valued at $7,773,271.44. The trade was a 6.19% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.54, for a total transaction of $2,061,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,642,610 shares of the company's stock, valued at $84,660,119.40. This trade represents a 2.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on SW shares. Jefferies Financial Group set a $58.00 target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $56.00 to $54.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. They set a "buy" rating and a $49.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $54.00 target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Smurfit Westrock from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $53.91.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 2.6%

Shares of SW stock opened at $42.28 on Friday. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $43.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $40.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1 year low of $32.73 and a 1 year high of $52.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.79 and a beta of 1.06.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 27th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 6.10%. The business had revenue of $7.58 billion for the quarter. As a group, analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th were given a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This is an increase from Smurfit Westrock's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.3%. Smurfit Westrock's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 136.09%.

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.

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