Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW Shares Sold by Lbp Am Sa

Key Points

• Lbp Am Sa trimmed its position by 84% in the fourth quarter, selling 147,205 shares and leaving 28,054 shares (worth $1.085M), while insiders (the CFO and CEO) also sold shares recently; institutional investors now own about 83.38% of the stock and insiders own 0.46%.
• Analysts have lowered several price targets for the stock, but the consensus rating remains a "Moderate Buy" with a consensus price target of $53.91.
• Smurfit Westrock raised its quarterly dividend to $0.4523 (annualized $1.81) for a ~4.3% yield, though the dividend payout ratio is an elevated 136.09%, raising questions about sustainability.

Lbp Am Sa trimmed its position in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW - Free Report) by 84.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 28,054 shares of the company's stock after selling 147,205 shares during the period. Lbp Am Sa's holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $1,085,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of SW. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. grew its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 113.3% in the third quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 640 shares of the company's stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the second quarter worth about $29,000. Root Financial Partners LLC acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the third quarter worth about $33,000. Mather Group LLC. acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the third quarter worth about $55,000. Finally, MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the second quarter worth about $63,000. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on SW shares. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $60.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Citigroup decreased their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $59.00 to $53.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Barclays decreased their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $56.00 to $54.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $53.91.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Shares of SW stock opened at $42.28 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The business has a 50 day moving average of $43.21 and a two-hundred day moving average of $40.65. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 52 week low of $32.73 and a 52 week high of $52.65. The company has a market cap of $22.16 billion, a P/E 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 EPS for the quarter. Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.10% and a net margin of 2.24%.The company had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter. As a group, analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of Smurfit Westrock stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief financial officer owned 151,644 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,773,271.44. The trade was a 6.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of Smurfit Westrock stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.54, for a total value of $2,061,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,610 shares in the company, valued at approximately $84,660,119.40. This trade represents a 2.38% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.

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.

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