West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. $WFG Shares Bought by Van ECK Associates Corp

Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. (NYSE:WFG) by 58.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 262,556 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 96,414 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp owned about 0.34% of West Fraser Timber worth $17,845,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its stake in West Fraser Timber by 75.8% during the third quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 552 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 238 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in West Fraser Timber by 212.0% in the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 780 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 530 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in West Fraser Timber by 346.6% in the second quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,090 shares of the company’s stock valued at $153,000 after purchasing an additional 1,622 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its position in West Fraser Timber by 5.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 3,874 shares of the company’s stock valued at $263,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in shares of West Fraser Timber by 29.8% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 3,975 shares of the company’s stock worth $291,000 after purchasing an additional 912 shares in the last quarter. 40.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on West Fraser Timber from $91.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Zacks Research raised shares of West Fraser Timber from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of West Fraser Timber in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce downgraded West Fraser Timber from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 9th. Finally, Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of West Fraser Timber from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating and set a $75.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, West Fraser Timber has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $82.67.

West Fraser Timber Stock Performance

Shares of West Fraser Timber stock traded up $0.56 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $63.99. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 24,272 shares, compared to its average volume of 250,615. West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. has a one year low of $57.34 and a one year high of $79.22. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $68.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $66.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 2.13. The stock has a market cap of $4.86 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.25 and a beta of 1.12.

West Fraser Timber (NYSE:WFG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported ($2.42) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($2.71) by $0.29. The business had revenue of $1.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.18 billion. West Fraser Timber had a negative net margin of 17.15% and a negative return on equity of 5.69%. As a group, analysts expect that West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. will post 4.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

West Fraser Timber Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. West Fraser Timber’s dividend payout ratio is -10.51%.

West Fraser Timber Company Profile

West Fraser Timber Co Ltd. (NYSE: WFG) is a leading North American diversified wood products company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company operates a broad portfolio of manufacturing facilities that produce lumber, engineered wood products such as laminated veneer lumber (LVL), oriented strand board (OSB) and plywood, as well as medium density fibreboard (MDF), particleboard, pulp and paper. West Fraser’s integrated production model spans harvesting, milling and finishing, allowing it to serve a wide range of residential, commercial and industrial construction markets.

Founded in 1955 as West Fraser Mills, the company has grown through both organic investment and strategic acquisitions to become one of the largest lumber producers in the world.