Traders Buy Large Volume of Weyerhaeuser Put Options (NYSE:WY)

Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE:WY) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock investors bought 3,277 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 65% compared to the average daily volume of 1,992 put options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WY has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup cut their target price on Weyerhaeuser from $28.00 to $26.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Weyerhaeuser from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 14th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Weyerhaeuser in a report on Monday. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $26.00 price objective (down from $29.00) on shares of Weyerhaeuser in a report on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on shares of Weyerhaeuser from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $29.78.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WY. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Weyerhaeuser by 4.2% during the second quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 10,178 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $261,000 after acquiring an additional 409 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Weyerhaeuser by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 29,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $756,000 after purchasing an additional 445 shares during the last quarter. BOKF NA boosted its stake in Weyerhaeuser by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. BOKF NA now owns 10,503 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $260,000 after purchasing an additional 463 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in Weyerhaeuser by 23.6% in the 3rd quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,557 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SPC Financial Inc. grew its position in Weyerhaeuser by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. SPC Financial Inc. now owns 14,595 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

Weyerhaeuser Trading Down 1.1%

Weyerhaeuser stock opened at $21.89 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $23.26 and its 200-day moving average is $24.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 1.04. Weyerhaeuser has a 1 year low of $21.16 and a 1 year high of $32.70. The company has a market cap of $15.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.59, a PEG ratio of 244.04 and a beta of 1.04.

Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.07) by $0.13. Weyerhaeuser had a net margin of 3.97% and a return on equity of 2.95%. The business had revenue of $1.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.05 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Weyerhaeuser will post 0.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Weyerhaeuser Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Investors of record on Friday, November 28th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 28th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. Weyerhaeuser’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 186.67%.

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.