Redwood Trust (NYSE:RWT) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) shares gapped up before the market opened on Friday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded the stock from a neutral rating to an overweight rating. The stock had previously closed at $5.63, but opened at $5.85. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now has a $6.00 price target on the stock. Redwood Trust shares last traded at $5.8050, with a volume of 121,718 shares.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on RWT. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Redwood Trust in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Jones Trading dropped their target price on shares of Redwood Trust from $7.00 to $6.25 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $8.50 target price on shares of Redwood Trust in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Redwood Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, January 17th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $6.75.

Institutional Trading of Redwood Trust

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of RWT. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Redwood Trust by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 15,020,483 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $86,969,000 after buying an additional 1,395,675 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Redwood Trust by 2.6% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,176,277 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $18,773,000 after acquiring an additional 80,206 shares during the period. Boston Partners grew its position in shares of Redwood Trust by 2.0% in the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,750,890 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $16,117,000 after purchasing an additional 54,209 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in shares of Redwood Trust by 7.5% in the third quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 2,148,393 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $12,439,000 after purchasing an additional 149,003 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Redwood Trust by 29.9% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,034,437 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $11,779,000 after purchasing an additional 468,720 shares during the period. 74.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Redwood Trust Price Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average of $5.55 and a 200-day moving average of $5.72. The company has a current ratio of 57.77, a quick ratio of 57.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 22.73. The firm has a market cap of $736.64 million, a PE ratio of -7.18 and a beta of 1.58.

Redwood Trust (NYSE:RWT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.04. Redwood Trust had a positive return on equity of 9.19% and a negative net margin of 8.62%.The business had revenue of $54.37 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $31.04 million. As a group, research analysts predict that Redwood Trust, Inc. will post 0.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Redwood Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 12.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 23rd. Redwood Trust’s dividend payout ratio is -88.89%.

About Redwood Trust

Redwood Trust, Inc (NYSE:RWT) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust specializing in the U.S. residential mortgage market. Headquartered in Mill Valley, California, the company focuses on investing in a diversified portfolio of residential mortgage assets, including whole loans, agency and non-agency mortgage-backed securities, and structured credit products.

The company’s core activities encompass the acquisition, financing, and management of prime residential mortgage whole loans and mortgage-backed securities.