Rayonier Inc. (NYSE:RYN) Declares Dividend Increase – $1.80 Per Share

Rayonier Inc. (NYSE:RYN) declared a special dividend on Monday, December 2nd,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, December 12th will be given a dividend of 1.80 per share by the real estate investment trust on Thursday, January 30th. This is an increase from Rayonier’s previous special dividend of $0.20.

Rayonier has a dividend payout ratio of 207.3% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Rayonier to earn $0.52 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $1.14 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 219.2%.

Rayonier Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:RYN traded up $0.20 on Tuesday, hitting $31.67. 91,975 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 605,364. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a current ratio of 1.99. Rayonier has a 1-year low of $27.40 and a 1-year high of $35.29. The company has a market capitalization of $4.72 billion, a PE ratio of 29.70 and a beta of 1.02. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $31.38 and its 200 day moving average is $30.40.

Rayonier (NYSE:RYN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.12 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $195.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.21 million. Rayonier had a return on equity of 2.95% and a net margin of 15.84%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.13 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Rayonier will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Rayonier declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, December 2nd that permits the company to buyback $300.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the real estate investment trust to reacquire up to 6.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Rayonier from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 16th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Rayonier from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th.

Insider Transactions at Rayonier

In other Rayonier news, Director V. Larkin Martin sold 10,011 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.57, for a total transaction of $306,036.27. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 40,168 shares in the company, valued at $1,227,935.76. This represents a 19.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

About Rayonier

Rayonier is a leading timberland real estate investment trust with assets located in some of the most productive softwood timber growing regions in the United States and New Zealand. As of December 31, 2023, Rayonier owned or leased under long-term agreements approximately 2.7 million acres of timberlands located in the U.S.