Farther Finance Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 3,692 Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW)

Farther Finance Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 3,692 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $199,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp bought a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the 3rd quarter valued at about $967,582,000. Geode Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the 3rd quarter valued at about $627,244,000. FMR LLC bought a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the 3rd quarter valued at about $431,653,000. Soros Fund Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $340,848,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 4,456.7% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,491,092 shares of the company’s stock worth $295,750,000 after purchasing an additional 5,370,587 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of SW opened at $45.99 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.89. Smurfit Westrock Ltd has a 1 year low of $38.55 and a 1 year high of $56.99. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $51.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $50.64. The firm has a market cap of $24.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 83.62 and a beta of 0.99.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by ($0.33). Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 0.63% and a return on equity of 6.16%. On average, equities analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock Ltd will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $0.4308 per share. This is a positive change from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 312.73%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SW has been the topic of several recent research reports. Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price objective on the stock. Argus initiated coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $66.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.70.

Insider Buying and Selling at Smurfit Westrock

In other news, insider Alvaro Henao sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.90, for a total transaction of $215,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 44,361 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,391,057.90. This represents a 8.27 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Ken Bowles sold 24,225 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.06, for a total value of $1,333,828.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 111,458 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,136,877.48. This represents a 17.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.49% 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.