Wall Street Zen Upgrades West Fraser Timber (NYSE:WFG) to “Sell”

West Fraser Timber (NYSE:WFG) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on WFG. Zacks Research upgraded shares of West Fraser Timber from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. TD Securities reissued a “buy” rating on shares of West Fraser Timber in a report on Friday. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of West Fraser Timber in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Raymond James Financial cut shares of West Fraser Timber from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $85.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Fraser Mackenzie reduced their price target on shares of West Fraser Timber from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $83.20.

West Fraser Timber Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of WFG stock opened at $64.75 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $67.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $66.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.07 billion, a PE ratio of -4.19 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.06 and a quick ratio of 0.83. West Fraser Timber has a 1-year low of $57.34 and a 1-year high of $76.99.

West Fraser Timber (NYSE:WFG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported ($0.78) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.70) by ($0.08). West Fraser Timber had a negative net margin of 22.98% and a negative return on equity of 10.84%. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.45 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that West Fraser Timber will post -3.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On West Fraser Timber

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its holdings in West Fraser Timber by 72.2% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 439 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. EFG International AG acquired a new position in West Fraser Timber during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of West Fraser Timber by 177.0% in the first quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 579 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 370 shares in the last quarter. Aegis Financial Corp purchased a new stake in shares of West Fraser Timber in the first quarter valued at about $205,000. Finally, Jain Global LLC acquired a new stake in shares of West Fraser Timber in the third quarter valued at approximately $224,000. 40.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About West Fraser Timber

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.