Legal & General Group Plc Acquires Shares of 72,942 West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. $WFG

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. (NYSE:WFG) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 72,942 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,936,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new position in West Fraser Timber in the second quarter valued at $12,360,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in West Fraser Timber during the 2nd quarter worth about $86,416,000. Atlas FRM LLC purchased a new stake in West Fraser Timber during the 2nd quarter worth about $50,090,600. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of West Fraser Timber during the 2nd quarter worth about $933,000. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia purchased a new position in shares of West Fraser Timber in the 2nd quarter valued at about $5,893,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on WFG. Zacks Research raised West Fraser Timber from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of West Fraser Timber from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of West Fraser Timber from $85.00 to $83.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 31st. TD Securities restated a “buy” rating on shares of West Fraser Timber in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of West Fraser Timber from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $83.20.

West Fraser Timber Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE WFG opened at $67.07 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $68.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $66.37. The stock has a market cap of $5.25 billion, a PE ratio of -4.34 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 2.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. has a 52-week low of $57.34 and a 52-week high of $76.99.

West Fraser Timber (NYSE:WFG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported ($0.78) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.70) by ($0.08). West Fraser Timber had a negative return on equity of 10.84% and a negative net margin of 22.98%.The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.45 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. will post -3.77 earnings per share for the current year.

West Fraser Timber Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 25th were issued a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 25th. West Fraser Timber’s payout ratio is presently -8.29%.

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.