West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. (NYSE:WFG) Given Average Recommendation of “Buy” by Brokerages

West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. (NYSE:WFG) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the six ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $106.25.

Several analysts have issued reports on WFG shares. Raymond James lifted their price target on West Fraser Timber from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. TD Securities lifted their price target on West Fraser Timber from $115.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Scotiabank set a $100.00 price target on West Fraser Timber and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $97.00 target price on shares of West Fraser Timber in a research report on Thursday, March 28th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On West Fraser Timber

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of WFG. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of West Fraser Timber by 1.5% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,785,571 shares of the company’s stock worth $202,065,000 after acquiring an additional 39,929 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co. boosted its holdings in shares of West Fraser Timber by 16.3% during the third quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co. now owns 3,248 shares of the company’s stock worth $236,000 after acquiring an additional 455 shares during the period. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of West Fraser Timber by 47.6% during the third quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 155,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,244,000 after acquiring an additional 50,000 shares during the period. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd bought a new stake in shares of West Fraser Timber during the third quarter worth approximately $1,798,000. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in shares of West Fraser Timber by 9.0% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,319,488 shares of the company’s stock worth $168,256,000 after acquiring an additional 191,613 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.23% of the company’s stock.

West Fraser Timber Stock Up 0.3 %

WFG stock opened at $78.27 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $81.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $78.39. West Fraser Timber has a 1-year low of $64.11 and a 1-year high of $90.17. The company has a current ratio of 2.26, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

West Fraser Timber (NYSE:WFG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported ($0.23) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.28) by $0.05. West Fraser Timber had a positive return on equity of 1.29% and a negative net margin of 2.59%. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter. On average, research analysts expect that West Fraser Timber will post 4.1 earnings per share for the current year.

West Fraser Timber Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 4th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. West Fraser Timber’s payout ratio is currently -27.91%.

About West Fraser Timber

West Fraser Timber Co Ltd., a diversified wood products company, engages in manufacturing, selling, marketing, and distributing lumber, engineered wood products, pulp, newsprint, wood chips, and other residuals and renewable energy. It offers spruce-pine-fir, douglas fir-larch, hem-fir, and southern yellow pine lumber, treated wood products, medium density fiberboard panels and plywood, oriented strand board, and laminated veneer lumber wood products, as well as particleboards.