American Century Companies Inc. Reduces Position in Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW)

American Century Companies Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW) by 74.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 271,790 shares of the company’s stock after selling 793,389 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 0.05% of Smurfit Westrock worth $14,639,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of SW. State Street Corp bought a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the third quarter worth $967,582,000. Geode Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Smurfit Westrock in the 3rd quarter worth about $627,244,000. Soros Fund Management LLC bought a new stake in Smurfit Westrock during the 3rd quarter valued at about $340,848,000. Boston Partners purchased a new stake in Smurfit Westrock in the 4th quarter valued at about $304,377,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 5,370,587 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on SW shares. Citigroup boosted their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Barclays upped their target price on Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Smurfit Westrock from $66.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. 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 objective for the company. Finally, Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research 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 assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Smurfit Westrock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.70.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 transaction of $1,333,828.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 111,458 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,136,877.48. The trade was a 17.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Alvaro Henao sold 4,000 shares of the firm’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 owns 44,361 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Corporate insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Smurfit Westrock Stock Up 1.1 %

NYSE:SW opened at $45.54 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $50.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $50.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 1.37. Smurfit Westrock Ltd has a fifty-two week low of $38.55 and a fifty-two week high of $56.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 82.80 and a beta of 0.99.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last released 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 anticipate that Smurfit Westrock Ltd will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a $0.4308 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.78%. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 312.73%.

Smurfit Westrock Company 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.