Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Decreases Holdings in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 29.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 142,008 shares of the company’s stock after selling 59,148 shares during the quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $5,951,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. raised its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 113.3% during the 3rd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 640 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the second quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Root Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Rexford Capital Inc. purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the second quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Groupe la Francaise acquired a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the second quarter worth approximately $51,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of the business’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 transaction, the chief financial officer owned 151,644 shares in the company, valued at $7,773,271.44. The trade was a 6.19% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of the company’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $84,660,119.40. This represents a 2.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SW has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Ten 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 a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.10.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Shares of SW opened at $42.11 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $44.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.58. The firm has a market cap of $22.07 billion, a PE ratio of 31.66 and a beta of 1.06. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 12-month low of $32.73 and a 12-month high of $52.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released 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). The business had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.63 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 6.10%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.28 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be issued a $0.4523 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. This is a positive change from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.3%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 136.09%.

Smurfit Westrock Company 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.