Raiffeisen Bank International AG Trims Stock Holdings in Smurfit Westrock PLC $SW

Raiffeisen Bank International AG reduced its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock PLC (NYSE:SW) by 46.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,570 shares of the company’s stock after selling 26,492 shares during the quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $1,290,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of SW. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 80,421,330 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,472,329,000 after acquiring an additional 1,233,997 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Smurfit Westrock by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,779,789 shares of the company’s stock valued at $896,661,000 after acquiring an additional 339,787 shares during the period. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 81.9% during the second quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 18,400,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $793,978,000 after purchasing an additional 8,286,205 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Smurfit Westrock during the 2nd quarter valued at about $749,735,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 2.3% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,693,951 shares of the company’s stock worth $370,101,000 after purchasing an additional 193,099 shares in the last quarter. 83.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Ken Bowles sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owned 151,644 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,773,271.44. This represents a 6.19% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Anthony P. J. Smurfit sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were 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 owned 1,642,610 shares in the company, valued at $84,660,119.40. This trade represents a 2.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Down 2.1%

Shares of Smurfit Westrock stock opened at $48.71 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $42.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.45. Smurfit Westrock PLC has a 1 year low of $32.73 and a 1 year high of $54.00. 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 company has a market cap of $25.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.62 and a beta of 1.09.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.46 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.63 billion. Smurfit Westrock had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 6.10%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.28 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock PLC 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 Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be given a dividend of $0.4523 per share. This is an increase from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $1.81 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.7%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 135.34%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Barclays increased their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Smurfit Westrock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 9th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $48.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $57.20.

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.