Marshall Wace LLP Raises Holdings in Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY)

Marshall Wace LLP increased its position in shares of Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) by 84.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 444,620 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 203,080 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP’s holdings in Weyerhaeuser were worth $12,516,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in WY. Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Weyerhaeuser by 290.9% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,239 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 922 shares in the last quarter. Asset Planning Inc purchased a new stake in Weyerhaeuser during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. bought a new stake in Weyerhaeuser during the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. Graney & King LLC purchased a new position in shares of Weyerhaeuser in the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. Finally, AdvisorNet Financial Inc raised its position in shares of Weyerhaeuser by 41.2% in the 4th quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 1,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 486 shares in the last quarter. 82.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on WY shares. Cibc World Mkts upgraded Weyerhaeuser from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note 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. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $36.00 price target on shares of Weyerhaeuser in a report on Monday, February 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on Weyerhaeuser in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $31.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Raymond James upgraded 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. Three investment 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $34.50.

Weyerhaeuser Price Performance

NYSE WY opened at $24.70 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $28.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $29.87. Weyerhaeuser has a 1 year low of $24.10 and a 1 year high of $34.03. 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 company has a market cap of $17.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.91, a PEG ratio of 4.74 and a beta of 1.25.

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

Weyerhaeuser Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.40%. This is a boost from Weyerhaeuser’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. Weyerhaeuser’s payout ratio is presently 152.73%.

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.