Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Decreases Stock Holdings in Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System trimmed its position in shares of Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 63,900 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 2,600 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Redwood Trust were worth $494,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Redwood Trust by 9.1% during the first quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 22,653 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $144,000 after buying an additional 1,889 shares during the last quarter. Evanson Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Redwood Trust by 16.7% during the third quarter. Evanson Asset Management LLC now owns 14,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $108,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Redwood Trust by 65.4% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,169 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 2,043 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Redwood Trust by 7.8% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 33,849 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $220,000 after purchasing an additional 2,450 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EMC Capital Management raised its position in shares of Redwood Trust by 11.3% in the 1st quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 29,377 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $187,000 after purchasing an additional 2,989 shares during the last quarter. 74.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Redwood Trust from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Redwood Trust from $8.50 to $9.50 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of Redwood Trust from $6.50 to $7.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. JMP Securities increased their price objective on shares of Redwood Trust from $8.50 to $9.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Redwood Trust from $7.50 to $8.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Redwood Trust currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $8.19.

Redwood Trust Stock Performance

RWT opened at $7.23 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $955.26 million, a PE ratio of 13.14 and a beta of 1.59. Redwood Trust, Inc. has a 12-month low of $5.45 and a 12-month high of $8.15. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $7.59 and a two-hundred day moving average of $6.98. The company has a current ratio of 50.47, a quick ratio of 50.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.75.

Redwood Trust Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is a boost from Redwood Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.41%. Redwood Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 123.64%.

About Redwood Trust

Redwood Trust, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a specialty finance company in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Residential Consumer Mortgage Banking, Residential Investor Mortgage Banking, and Investment Portfolio. The Residential Consumer Mortgage Banking segment operates a mortgage loan conduit that acquires residential loans from third-party originators for subsequent sale, securitization, or transfer to its investment portfolio.