Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW Shares Bought by Causeway Capital Management LLC

Causeway Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,522,983 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 507,289 shares during the period. Smurfit Westrock comprises approximately 4.2% of Causeway Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Causeway Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $320,253,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in SW. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 90.5% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 13,425 shares of the company’s stock valued at $593,000 after purchasing an additional 6,378 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 6.7% during the first quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 5,501 shares of the company’s stock worth $248,000 after buying an additional 346 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in Smurfit Westrock by 5.9% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 48,559 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,188,000 after buying an additional 2,698 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 192.3% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 13,264 shares of the company’s stock valued at $598,000 after buying an additional 8,726 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Woodline Partners LP increased its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 40.8% in the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 41,772 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,882,000 after buying an additional 12,096 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

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

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 6.10% and a net margin of 2.24%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.28 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be given a dividend of $0.4523 per share. The ex-dividend date 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 yield of 4.3%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 136.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 value of $512,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 151,644 shares in the company, valued at $7,773,271.44. This represents a 6.19% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $84,660,119.40. This trade represents a 2.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SW has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $58.00 price target on Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Zacks Research raised Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.10.

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.