Franklin Resources Inc. Has $13.92 Million Stock Position in Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY)

Franklin Resources Inc. lowered its position in shares of Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) by 32.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 494,439 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 235,131 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Weyerhaeuser were worth $13,918,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WY. HB Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Weyerhaeuser by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 15,041 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $423,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares during the period. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC lifted its position in shares of Weyerhaeuser by 2.5% in the third quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 15,291 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $518,000 after purchasing an additional 367 shares in the last quarter. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Weyerhaeuser by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 10,893 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $307,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Weyerhaeuser by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 12,715 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $358,000 after purchasing an additional 448 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its stake in Weyerhaeuser by 9.9% in the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 4,976 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $140,000 after buying an additional 448 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

Weyerhaeuser Stock Down 3.1 %

WY opened at $25.46 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $18.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.74 and a beta of 1.25. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $29.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.50. Weyerhaeuser has a twelve month low of $24.89 and a twelve month high of $35.08.

Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. Research analysts forecast that Weyerhaeuser will post 0.78 EPS for the current year.

Weyerhaeuser Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.30%. This is a boost from Weyerhaeuser’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. Weyerhaeuser’s dividend payout ratio is 152.73%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on WY shares. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Weyerhaeuser from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. CIBC upgraded Weyerhaeuser from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and set a $35.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Citigroup dropped their target price on Weyerhaeuser from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com raised Weyerhaeuser from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Weyerhaeuser from $34.00 to $33.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.