Principal Financial Group Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) by 9.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,603,437 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 299,020 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.50% of Weyerhaeuser worth $101,439,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Oakworth Capital Inc. purchased a new position in Weyerhaeuser in the third quarter worth $25,000. Asset Planning Inc bought a new stake in Weyerhaeuser in the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Weyerhaeuser by 172.4% in the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,136 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in Weyerhaeuser in the third quarter worth $45,000. Finally, AdvisorNet Financial Inc lifted its stake in Weyerhaeuser by 41.2% in the fourth quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 1,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 486 shares during the last quarter. 82.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on WY. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Weyerhaeuser from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Raymond James raised shares of Weyerhaeuser from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $32.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. StockNews.com raised shares of Weyerhaeuser from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Weyerhaeuser from $34.00 to $33.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, 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 note on Friday, December 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $35.00.

Weyerhaeuser Stock Up 0.4 %

WY opened at $29.73 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Weyerhaeuser has a 1-year low of $26.73 and a 1-year high of $36.27. The company has a market capitalization of $21.60 billion, a PE ratio of 54.05, a PEG ratio of 4.69 and a beta of 1.42. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.33 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $30.85.

Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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, equities analysts forecast that Weyerhaeuser will post 0.8 EPS for the current year.

Weyerhaeuser Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.83%. This is a boost from Weyerhaeuser’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Weyerhaeuser’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 145.46%.

Weyerhaeuser 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.