Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Makes New Investment in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new position in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 360,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $16,233,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned approximately 0.07% of Smurfit Westrock at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Tsfg LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the first quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 54.0% during the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 779 shares of the company's stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 273 shares during the period. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the first quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Huntington National Bank purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,000. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on SW. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $63.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased 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 report on Friday, May 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $57.90.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

Shares of SW stock traded down $1.21 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $44.87. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,982,503 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,909,535. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1-year low of $37.01 and a 1-year high of $56.99. The company has a market cap of $23.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.78 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.43. The firm's 50-day moving average is $44.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $46.64.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.08. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.98% and a return on equity of 7.38%. The business had revenue of $7.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.41 billion. The company's revenue was up 161.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th were issued a dividend of $0.4308 per share. This represents a yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 16th. Smurfit Westrock's dividend payout ratio is currently 140.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Irial Finan acquired 15,180 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $39.21 per share, with a total value of $595,207.80. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 54,893 shares in the company, valued at $2,152,354.53. The trade was a 38.22% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Smurfit Westrock 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.