Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW Stake Raised by NEOS Investment Management LLC

NEOS Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 63.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 28,163 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,916 shares during the quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $1,199,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Smurfit Westrock by 1.6% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 80,421,330 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,472,329,000 after purchasing an additional 1,233,997 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,779,789 shares of the company’s stock valued at $896,661,000 after buying an additional 339,787 shares during the period. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% during the 2nd quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 18,400,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $793,978,000 after acquiring an additional 8,286,205 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the second quarter worth $749,735,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 2.3% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,693,951 shares of the company’s stock worth $370,101,000 after acquiring an additional 193,099 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SW has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $61.00 price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup increased their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $58.00 target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.20.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Down 2.1%

SW opened at $48.71 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $25.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.62 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.48. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $42.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.47. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a twelve month low of $32.73 and a twelve month high of $54.00.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.46 by ($0.12). Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 6.10%. The company had revenue of $7.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.63 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.28 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be given a dividend of $0.4523 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. This is a positive change from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 136.09%.

Insider Transactions at Smurfit Westrock

In other news, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.26, for a total value of $512,600.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 151,644 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,773,271.44. This trade represents a 6.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $84,660,119.40. This represents a 2.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.49% of the stock is 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.