Sentry Investment Management LLC Sells 337 Shares of Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW)

Sentry Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in Smurfit Westrock Ltd (NYSE:SW) by 14.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,073 shares of the company’s stock after selling 337 shares during the quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Smurfit Westrock were worth $112,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Stephens Inc. AR raised its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 5,616 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc. raised its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 49.1% in the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 695 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 229 shares during the period. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 117.7% in the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 516 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 279 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC raised its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 55,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,011,000 after acquiring an additional 299 shares during the period. Finally, Contravisory Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Smurfit Westrock by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,189 shares of the company’s stock valued at $764,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the period. 83.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Alvaro Henao sold 4,000 shares of Smurfit Westrock stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.90, for a total transaction of $215,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 44,361 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,391,057.90. This trade represents a 8.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ken Bowles sold 24,225 shares of Smurfit Westrock stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 111,458 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,136,877.48. This represents a 17.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 53,225 shares of company stock valued at $2,920,429. Insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SW has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 target price on shares of Smurfit Westrock in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price 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 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.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $60.70.

Smurfit Westrock Price Performance

SW stock opened at $53.63 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $53.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $50.39. The company has a market capitalization of $27.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 97.51 and a beta of 1.02. Smurfit Westrock Ltd has a 52-week low of $38.55 and a 52-week high of $56.99. 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 (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 net margin of 0.63% and a return on equity of 6.16%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Smurfit Westrock Ltd will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

Smurfit Westrock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.21%. This is an increase from Smurfit Westrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. Smurfit Westrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.