Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. Trims Stock Position in Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY)

Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. decreased its holdings in Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) by 2.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 73,456 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,952 shares during the quarter. Meridian Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Weyerhaeuser were worth $2,068,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of WY. Townsquare Capital LLC purchased a new position in Weyerhaeuser during the third quarter worth approximately $297,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its position in shares of Weyerhaeuser by 25.0% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 126,566 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,286,000 after buying an additional 25,308 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in Weyerhaeuser by 257.2% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,472,451 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $151,437,000 after acquiring an additional 3,220,235 shares during the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. grew its position in Weyerhaeuser by 13.6% during the third quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 84,245 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,853,000 after acquiring an additional 10,095 shares during the period. Finally, Erste Asset Management GmbH purchased a new stake in Weyerhaeuser during the third quarter valued at about $1,282,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on WY shares. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Weyerhaeuser from $34.00 to $33.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $36.00 price objective on shares of Weyerhaeuser in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Weyerhaeuser from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Weyerhaeuser from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Weyerhaeuser from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $35.00.

Weyerhaeuser Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE WY opened at $29.38 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $21.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.41, a PEG ratio of 4.74 and a beta of 1.43. Weyerhaeuser has a 1 year low of $26.73 and a 1 year high of $36.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.79. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $30.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.71.

Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.04. Weyerhaeuser had a return on equity of 3.86% and a net margin of 5.56%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Weyerhaeuser will post 0.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Weyerhaeuser Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a boost from Weyerhaeuser’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.86%. Weyerhaeuser’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 152.73%.

About Weyerhaeuser

Weyerhaeuser Company, one of the world's largest private owners of timberlands, began operations in 1900. We own or control approximately 11 million acres of timberlands in the U.S. and manage additional timberlands under long-term licenses in Canada. We manage these timberlands on a sustainable basis in compliance with internationally recognized forestry standards.