Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.21 Per Share

Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 13th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of 0.21 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, March 21st. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.83%. This is an increase from Weyerhaeuser’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20.

Weyerhaeuser has a payout ratio of 74.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Weyerhaeuser to earn $0.89 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 89.9%.

Weyerhaeuser Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Weyerhaeuser stock opened at $29.69 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 1.79 and a quick ratio of 1.17. The stock has a market cap of $21.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.98, a PEG ratio of 4.69 and a beta of 1.42. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $29.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $30.90. Weyerhaeuser has a 1 year low of $26.73 and a 1 year high of $36.27.

Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) 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 0.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on WY shares. 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. Citigroup cut their target price on Weyerhaeuser from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Weyerhaeuser from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $38.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Weyerhaeuser from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $36.00 price objective on shares of Weyerhaeuser in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Weyerhaeuser currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $35.00.

Weyerhaeuser Company Profile

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.