Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) Position Trimmed by D.A. Davidson & CO.

D.A. Davidson & CO. trimmed its stake in Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 244,606 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,689 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Weyerhaeuser were worth $6,886,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Creative Planning lifted its position in Weyerhaeuser by 22.4% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 74,099 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,509,000 after buying an additional 13,572 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of Weyerhaeuser by 36.9% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 13,429 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $455,000 after acquiring an additional 3,618 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its holdings in shares of Weyerhaeuser by 14.3% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 821,837 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $27,827,000 after acquiring an additional 103,023 shares in the last quarter. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in Weyerhaeuser during the third quarter valued at $45,000. Finally, Oakworth Capital Inc. purchased a new position in Weyerhaeuser in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. 82.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Weyerhaeuser Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of WY stock opened at $29.20 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $30.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.79. Weyerhaeuser has a twelve month low of $26.73 and a twelve month high of $36.27. The company has a market capitalization of $21.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.08, a PEG ratio of 4.68 and a beta of 1.42.

Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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, research analysts predict that Weyerhaeuser will post 0.78 EPS for the current year.

Weyerhaeuser Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a $0.21 dividend. This is an increase from Weyerhaeuser’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.88%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Weyerhaeuser’s payout ratio is currently 145.46%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WY has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com raised Weyerhaeuser from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Weyerhaeuser from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. CIBC raised shares of Weyerhaeuser from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and set a $35.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Raymond James raised shares of Weyerhaeuser from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $32.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Weyerhaeuser from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $38.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, December 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $35.00.

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.