Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) Shares Gap Down Following Insider Selling

Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Monday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock had previously closed at $48.74, but opened at $46.13. Smurfit Westrock shares last traded at $45.4570, with a volume of 1,241,484 shares traded.

Specifically, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of Smurfit Westrock stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.54, for a total transaction of $2,061,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,642,610 shares in the company, valued at approximately $84,660,119.40. The trade was a 2.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.26, for a total value of $512,600.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 151,644 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,773,271.44. This trade represents a 6.19% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on SW. Zacks Research raised shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Argus reduced their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $55.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Monday, December 29th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $57.20.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average of $42.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.22 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.12). Smurfit Westrock had a return on equity of 6.10% and a net margin of 2.24%.The business had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.63 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.28 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities 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 will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be paid 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.0%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 136.09%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Smurfit Westrock

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 90.5% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 13,425 shares of the company’s stock valued at $593,000 after acquiring an additional 6,378 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC increased its position in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 6.7% during the 1st quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 5,501 shares of the company’s stock valued at $248,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 48,559 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,188,000 after buying an additional 2,698 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 during the period. Finally, Woodline Partners LP boosted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 40.8% during 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.

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.