Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Decreases Position in Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. reduced its position in Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW - Free Report) by 27.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,122 shares of the company's stock after selling 11,565 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $1,624,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Covestor Ltd raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 8.9% during the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 2,308 shares of the company's stock valued at $124,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 6,771 shares of the company's stock valued at $364,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 16.6% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,390 shares of the company's stock valued at $75,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 5,616 shares of the company's stock valued at $302,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the period. Finally, Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. raised its position in Smurfit Westrock by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 15,866 shares of the company's stock valued at $855,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the period. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Smurfit Westrock

In related news, Director Irial Finan bought 15,180 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $39.21 per share, with a total value of $595,207.80. Following the transaction, the director now 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.49% of the company's stock.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Down 1.4%

NYSE:SW traded down $0.63 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $43.28. The stock had a trading volume of 5,468,171 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,597,362. Smurfit Westrock Ltd has a one year low of $37.01 and a one year high of $56.99. The company has a market capitalization of $22.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 78.69 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $42.85 and a 200 day moving average of $49.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 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 analysts' expectations of $7.41 billion. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 161.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock Ltd will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SW has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays decreased their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $68.00 to $64.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $66.00 to $64.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $53.00 to $43.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced 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. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $62.00 to $50.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $58.20.

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.