West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. (NYSE:WFG) Increases Dividend to $0.32 Per Share

West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. (NYSE:WFG) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, December 11th,NASDAQ Dividends reports. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of 0.32 per share on Tuesday, January 14th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. This is a positive change from West Fraser Timber’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24.

West Fraser Timber has raised its dividend payment by an average of 26.2% annually over the last three years. West Fraser Timber has a payout ratio of 26.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect West Fraser Timber to earn $5.77 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.28 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 22.2%.

West Fraser Timber Stock Down 2.9 %

WFG traded down $2.68 during trading on Friday, hitting $89.49. 246,643 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 157,982. The business’s 50 day moving average is $95.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $87.96. The stock has a market cap of $7.18 billion, a P/E ratio of -69.96 and a beta of 1.19. West Fraser Timber has a fifty-two week low of $73.91 and a fifty-two week high of $102.40.

West Fraser Timber (NYSE:WFG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported ($1.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.16) by ($0.87). The company had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.45 billion. West Fraser Timber had a negative net margin of 1.53% and a positive return on equity of 0.53%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.81 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that West Fraser Timber will post 0.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WFG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of West Fraser Timber from $105.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on West Fraser Timber from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, West Fraser Timber presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $111.60.

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.