Schechter Investment Advisors LLC Takes $440,000 Position in Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW)

Schechter Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 8,172 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $440,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Stephens Inc. AR boosted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 5,616 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc. lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 49.1% in the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 695 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 229 shares during the period. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 117.7% in the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 516 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 279 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 55,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,011,000 after acquiring an additional 299 shares during the period. Finally, Contravisory Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Smurfit Westrock by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,189 shares of the company’s stock worth $764,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Smurfit Westrock

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

Smurfit Westrock Stock Performance

Shares of SW stock opened at $48.29 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $53.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $50.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The stock has a market cap of $25.13 billion, a PE ratio of 87.79 and a beta of 0.99. Smurfit Westrock Ltd has a 12 month low of $38.55 and a 12 month high of $56.99.

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

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $0.4308 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.57%. 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. Smurfit Westrock’s payout ratio is currently 312.73%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on SW. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $58.00 price target on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Argus began coverage on Smurfit Westrock in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price target for the company. Citigroup raised their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Barclays raised their price objective on Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Truist Financial assumed coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 target price on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.70.

Smurfit Westrock Profile

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.