Investors Purchase Large Volume of Weyerhaeuser Call Options (NYSE:WY)

Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE:WY) was the target of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock investors purchased 10,396 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 626% compared to the average volume of 1,432 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen upgraded Weyerhaeuser from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 2nd. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Weyerhaeuser from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 2nd. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $31.00 target price on shares of Weyerhaeuser in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Weyerhaeuser from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Weyerhaeuser from $29.00 to $21.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $27.78.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Weyerhaeuser

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Essential Partners LLC boosted its stake in Weyerhaeuser by 120,800.0% in the first quarter. Essential Partners LLC now owns 1,209 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 1,208 shares in the last quarter. Nvwm LLC increased its holdings in shares of Weyerhaeuser by 174.7% during the 2nd quarter. Nvwm LLC now owns 1,258 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of Weyerhaeuser by 77.6% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,412 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 617 shares during the period. Compass Financial Management LLC acquired a new position in Weyerhaeuser in the second quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Bayban purchased a new position in Weyerhaeuser in the fourth quarter worth approximately $41,000. Institutional investors own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

Weyerhaeuser Price Performance

Shares of Weyerhaeuser stock traded up $0.29 during trading on Thursday, hitting $18.86. 3,560,209 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,051,711. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The stock has a market cap of $13.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.03, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $22.70 and its 200-day moving average is $23.62. Weyerhaeuser has a 52 week low of $18.25 and a 52 week high of $27.75.

Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.05. Weyerhaeuser had a return on equity of 1.49% and a net margin of 6.89%.The company had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.12 EPS. Weyerhaeuser’s quarterly revenue was down 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Weyerhaeuser will post 0.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Weyerhaeuser Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 4th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 4th. Weyerhaeuser’s dividend payout ratio is presently 129.23%.

Weyerhaeuser Company Profile

Weyerhaeuser (NYSE: WY) is one of the world’s largest private owners of timberlands and a major producer of forest products. The company owns and manages timberlands in the United States and operates manufacturing facilities in the United States and Canada, serving residential, commercial and industrial markets.

Its principal products include lumber, structural panels, engineered wood products and other materials used in homebuilding and construction. Weyerhaeuser also manages its timberlands for sustainable wood production and generates revenue from real estate, energy and natural-resource activities associated with those properties.

Founded in 1900, Weyerhaeuser has developed from a regional timber company into an integrated forest-products business.