Distillate Capital Partners LLC Acquires New Stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Distillate Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 352,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,001,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 113.3% in 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 during the period. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC acquired a new position in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the second quarter worth about $29,000. Root Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the third quarter worth about $33,000. Rexford Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the second quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Groupe la Francaise acquired a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the second quarter valued at about $51,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Smurfit Westrock

In related news, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of Smurfit Westrock stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The stock was 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 directly owned 1,642,610 shares of the company’s stock, 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 document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of the business’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 sale, the chief financial officer owned 151,644 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,773,271.44. The trade was a 6.19% 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.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of SW opened at $39.75 on Monday. 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 is $44.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.45. 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 $20.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.89 and a beta of 1.06.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last issued its 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). The company 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.28 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Smurfit Westrock PLC will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be paid a $0.4523 dividend. This represents a $1.81 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. This is an increase from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 136.09%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Zacks Research upgraded Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Truist Financial set a $60.00 price target on Smurfit Westrock in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.