Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) Earns Overweight Rating from Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) in a report published on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm issued an overweight rating and a $31.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also commented on WY. StockNews.com raised Weyerhaeuser from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. CIBC upgraded Weyerhaeuser from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and set a $35.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Weyerhaeuser from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Weyerhaeuser from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $32.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Weyerhaeuser from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $34.50.

Weyerhaeuser Price Performance

Shares of WY opened at $24.77 on Tuesday. 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 firm has a market cap of $17.98 billion, a PE ratio of 45.03, a PEG ratio of 4.74 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $29.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $30.40. Weyerhaeuser has a twelve month low of $24.50 and a twelve month high of $35.08.

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

Weyerhaeuser Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from Weyerhaeuser’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Weyerhaeuser’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 152.73%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Weyerhaeuser

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Waverly Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Weyerhaeuser by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 10,830 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $305,000 after acquiring an additional 343 shares during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Weyerhaeuser by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 15,041 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $423,000 after purchasing an additional 357 shares during the period. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in Weyerhaeuser by 2.5% during the third quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 15,291 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $518,000 after purchasing an additional 367 shares in the last quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. grew its stake in shares of Weyerhaeuser by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. now owns 9,924 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $279,000 after purchasing an additional 385 shares during the period. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Weyerhaeuser by 13.8% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 3,425 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $96,000 after buying an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. 82.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.