Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) Increases Dividend to $0.21 Per Share

Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 13th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid 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 yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Weyerhaeuser’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20.

Weyerhaeuser has a dividend payout ratio of 78.5% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings tumble. Analysts expect Weyerhaeuser to earn $0.97 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 86.6%.

Weyerhaeuser Stock Performance

NYSE:WY opened at $31.11 on Wednesday. Weyerhaeuser has a 1-year low of $26.73 and a 1-year high of $36.27. 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 business has a 50 day moving average of $29.54 and a 200 day moving average of $30.80. The company has a market capitalization of $22.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.51, a PEG ratio of 4.74 and a beta of 1.42.

Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) last announced 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%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Weyerhaeuser will post 0.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on WY. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Weyerhaeuser from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $38.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Raymond James raised Weyerhaeuser from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $32.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Cibc World Mkts raised Weyerhaeuser from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Weyerhaeuser from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Weyerhaeuser from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average 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.