Abacus Planning Group Inc. Acquires Shares of 23,597 Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW)

Abacus Planning Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 23,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,271,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Versant Capital Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 117.7% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 516 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 279 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Smurfit Westrock by 49.1% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 695 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 229 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.38% of the company’s stock.

Smurfit Westrock Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of Smurfit Westrock stock opened at $55.34 on Thursday. Smurfit Westrock Ltd has a 12-month low of $38.55 and a 12-month high of $56.99. 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 $28.80 billion, a PE ratio of 100.63 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a 50-day moving average of $53.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $49.90.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) last issued 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 net margin of 0.63% and a return on equity of 6.16%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Smurfit Westrock Ltd will post 3.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.4308 per share. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.11%. This is a boost from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 312.73%.

Insider Transactions at Smurfit Westrock

In other news, insider Saverio Mayer sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.84, for a total transaction of $1,371,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 149,911 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,221,119.24. This trade represents a 14.29 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SW has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.