New York Life Investment Management LLC Increases Position in Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW)

New York Life Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW) by 1.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 67,206 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 759 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $3,620,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of SW. State Street Corp purchased a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the 3rd quarter valued at about $967,582,000. Geode Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $627,244,000. FMR LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $431,653,000. Mizuho Securities USA LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $386,712,000. Finally, Soros Fund Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $340,848,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Smurfit Westrock news, 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 transaction of $1,333,828.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 111,458 shares in the company, valued at $6,136,877.48. This represents a 17.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Alvaro Henao sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.90, for a total transaction of $215,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 44,361 shares in the company, valued at $2,391,057.90. The trade was a 8.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 53,225 shares of company stock worth $2,920,429 in the last ninety days. 0.49% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on SW. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Argus began coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price target for the company. Truist Financial began coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price target for the company. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, 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 report on Friday, November 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.70.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

NYSE:SW opened at $52.15 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 1.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 94.81 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $53.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $50.56. Smurfit Westrock Ltd has a fifty-two week low of $38.55 and a fifty-two week high of $56.99.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released its earnings results 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 return on equity of 6.16% and a net margin of 0.63%. Equities research analysts forecast that Smurfit Westrock Ltd 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 Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.4308 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. 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 3.30%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio is 312.73%.

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.