Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Sells 4,006 Shares of Rayonier Inc. (NYSE:RYN)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lessened its stake in Rayonier Inc. (NYSE:RYN) by 4.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 85,006 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 4,006 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Rayonier were worth $2,403,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of Rayonier by 59.7% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,404 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 525 shares during the last quarter. Oak Thistle LLC bought a new stake in shares of Rayonier in the 4th quarter valued at about $467,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Rayonier by 36.8% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 3,186 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $83,000 after buying an additional 857 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Rayonier by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 195,369 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,087,000 after purchasing an additional 12,028 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Rayonier by 41.8% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,733 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 511 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.12% of the company’s stock.

Rayonier Stock Up 0.0 %

RYN stock opened at $26.29 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $28.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.82. Rayonier Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $24.88 and a fifty-two week high of $35.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a current ratio of 1.99. The company has a market cap of $3.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.80 and a beta of 1.04.

Rayonier (NYSE:RYN) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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). Rayonier had a return on equity of 2.95% and a net margin of 15.84%. The firm had revenue of $195.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.21 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.13 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Rayonier Inc. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Rayonier declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, December 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $300.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the real estate investment trust to reacquire up to 6.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Rayonier Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 dividend payout ratio is 107.55%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on RYN. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Rayonier from $32.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Rayonier from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Rayonier from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $29.67.

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.