Patten & Patten Inc. TN Sells 170,455 Shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Key Points

• Patten & Patten Inc. TN cut its Smurfit Westrock position by 18% in the fourth quarter, selling 170,455 shares and leaving it with 775,730 shares worth about $30 million.
• Smurfit Westrock executives also sold stock: CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares and CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares on February 19, according to SEC filings.
• The company reported mixed quarterly results, with EPS of $0.33 missing expectations while revenue came in at $7.71 billion; it also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.4523 per share, yielding about 4.3% annualized.

Patten & Patten Inc. TN reduced its holdings in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW - Free Report) by 18.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 775,730 shares of the company's stock after selling 170,455 shares during the quarter. Smurfit Westrock comprises 1.8% of Patten & Patten Inc. TN's portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Patten & Patten Inc. TN owned approximately 0.15% of Smurfit Westrock worth $29,997,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sound Income Strategies LLC lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 79,790.6% during the fourth quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 127,825 shares of the company's stock worth $5,459,000 after purchasing an additional 127,665 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 8.3% during the third quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 970,595 shares of the company's stock worth $40,762,000 after purchasing an additional 74,360 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 42.9% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,239,822 shares of the company's stock worth $52,779,000 after purchasing an additional 372,177 shares during the period. Exane Asset Management lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 35.4% during the third quarter. Exane Asset Management now owns 345,393 shares of the company's stock worth $14,703,000 after purchasing an additional 90,233 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 152.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,269,743 shares of the company's stock worth $224,333,000 after purchasing an additional 3,180,531 shares during the period. 83.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Smurfit Westrock

In other Smurfit Westrock news, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.26, for a total transaction of $512,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 151,644 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,773,271.44. This represents a 6.19% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.54, for a total value of $2,061,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,610 shares in the company, valued at approximately $84,660,119.40. This represents a 2.38% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

NYSE:SW opened at $41.66 on Friday. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1 year low of $32.73 and a 1 year high of $52.65. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $41.19 and a 200-day moving average of $40.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.86 and a beta of 0.95.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.03). Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 1.22% and a return on equity of 4.96%. The firm had revenue of $7.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.74 EPS. The business's revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 2.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.4523 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.81 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.3%. Smurfit Westrock's dividend payout ratio is currently 251.39%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group set a $58.00 price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $56.00 to $54.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $64.00 to $62.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Smurfit Westrock from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating and set a $57.00 price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Wednesday. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $53.18.

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.

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