Rayonier (NYSE:RYN) Board Initiates Stock Repurchase Plan

Rayonier (NYSE:RYN) announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, December 2nd, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $300.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the real estate investment trust to purchase up to 6.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Rayonier Stock Performance

NYSE RYN opened at $31.42 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $4.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.92 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a quick ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. Rayonier has a twelve month low of $27.40 and a twelve month high of $35.29. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $30.42.

Rayonier (NYSE:RYN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $195.00 million during 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 company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.13 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Rayonier will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Rayonier Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a special dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 12th will be paid a $1.80 dividend. This is an increase from Rayonier’s previous special dividend of $0.20. Rayonier’s payout ratio is currently 107.55%.

Insider Transactions at Rayonier

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

Rayonier Company Profile

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.