Norges Bank Takes Position in Rayonier Inc. (NYSE:RYN)

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Rayonier Inc. (NYSE:RYN) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 13,142,039 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $343,007,000. Norges Bank owned about 0.09% of Rayonier at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Rayonier during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of Rayonier by 59.7% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,404 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 525 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its holdings in Rayonier by 264.6% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,677 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 1,217 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Rayonier by 41.8% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,733 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 511 shares during the period. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Rayonier by 36.8% during the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 3,186 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 857 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.12% of the company’s stock.

Rayonier Trading Down 0.1 %

RYN opened at $27.83 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $26.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.85. Rayonier Inc. has a 12 month low of $24.88 and a 12 month high of $31.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.79 and a beta of 1.00.

Rayonier (NYSE:RYN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.08. Rayonier had a return on equity of 3.86% and a net margin of 28.44%. Sell-side analysts expect that Rayonier Inc. will post 0.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Rayonier Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be given a $0.2725 dividend. This represents a $1.09 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. Rayonier’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.19%.

Rayonier announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Monday, December 2nd that permits the company to buyback $300.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the real estate investment trust to repurchase up to 6.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Rayonier from $32.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Truist Financial lowered their target price on Rayonier from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Rayonier from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $31.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Rayonier from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Rayonier from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Rayonier has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $29.00.

Rayonier Profile

Rayonier is a leading timberland real estate investment trust with assets located in some of the most productive softwood timber growing regions in the United States and New Zealand. As of December 31, 2023, Rayonier owned or leased under long-term agreements approximately 2.7 million acres of timberlands located in the U.S.