Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the nine brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation, five have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $6.9583.

Several research firms have recently commented on RWT. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Redwood Trust in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Redwood Trust from $5.75 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Redwood Trust from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $6.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Redwood Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, February 15th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Redwood Trust from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 26th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Redwood Trust

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of RWT. UBS Group AG increased its stake in Redwood Trust by 521.1% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,875,226 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $21,430,000 after purchasing an additional 3,251,302 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Redwood Trust by 10.2% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 15,020,483 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $86,969,000 after purchasing an additional 1,395,675 shares in the last quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Redwood Trust by 52.8% in the fourth quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 1,674,009 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $9,257,000 after purchasing an additional 578,301 shares during the last quarter. Tran Capital Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Redwood Trust in the fourth quarter valued at $2,947,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Redwood Trust by 25.4% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,551,067 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $14,107,000 after buying an additional 516,630 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.34% of the company’s stock.

Redwood Trust Stock Down 1.4%

RWT stock opened at $5.83 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $728.07 million, a PE ratio of -9.55 and a beta of 1.55. The company has a fifty day moving average of $5.88 and a 200-day moving average of $5.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 24.34, a quick ratio of 55.15 and a current ratio of 55.15. Redwood Trust has a one year low of $4.68 and a one year high of $6.97.

Redwood Trust (NYSE:RWT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.22 by ($0.02). Redwood Trust had a positive return on equity of 12.00% and a negative net margin of 5.93%.The firm had revenue of $140.33 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $24.88 million. As a group, analysts expect that Redwood Trust will post 0.78 EPS for the current year.

Redwood Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 24th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 12.4%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 24th. Redwood Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently -118.03%.

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.