Legal & General Group Plc Cuts Position in Sylvamo Co. (NYSE:SLVM)

Legal & General Group Plc reduced its stake in shares of Sylvamo Co. (NYSE:SLVM) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 102,535 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,556 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.25% of Sylvamo worth $8,102,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sylvamo by 182.4% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 624 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Sylvamo by 43.6% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 662 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its position in shares of Sylvamo by 40.9% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 737 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after buying an additional 214 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in shares of Sylvamo in the third quarter valued at approximately $82,000. Finally, Fortitude Family Office LLC increased its position in Sylvamo by 277.9% during the fourth quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC now owns 1,678 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,000 after buying an additional 1,234 shares in the last quarter. 91.16% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Jeanmichel Ribieras sold 21,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.14, for a total transaction of $1,384,225.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 131,894 shares in the company, valued at $8,591,575.16. This represents a 13.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.75% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Sylvamo from $83.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th.

Sylvamo Price Performance

SLVM stock opened at $60.67 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $65.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $77.67. Sylvamo Co. has a 52-week low of $54.94 and a 52-week high of $98.02. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

Sylvamo (NYSE:SLVM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.84 by $0.10. Sylvamo had a return on equity of 34.72% and a net margin of 7.96%. Equities research analysts expect that Sylvamo Co. will post 7.45 EPS for the current year.

Sylvamo Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 29th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 8th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 8th. Sylvamo’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.97%.

Sylvamo Profile

Sylvamo Corporation produces and markets uncoated freesheet for cutsize, offset paper, and pulp in Latin America, Europe, and North America. The company operates through Europe, Latin America, and North America segments. The Europe segment offers copy, tinted, and colored laser printing paper under REY Adagio and Pro-Design brands; and graphic and high-speed inkjet printing papers under the brand Jetstar; as well as produces uncoated freesheet papers.