State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Increases Position in Rayonier Inc. $RYN

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lifted its position in Rayonier Inc. (NYSE:RYN) by 32.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 106,178 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 26,273 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D owned about 0.07% of Rayonier worth $2,299,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Rayonier by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,174,792 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $458,434,000 after purchasing an additional 444,503 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of Rayonier by 0.7% in the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,222,235 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $112,058,000 after purchasing an additional 28,705 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Rayonier by 2.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,782,342 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $100,383,000 after purchasing an additional 94,033 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Rayonier by 23.0% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,197,009 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $58,133,000 after purchasing an additional 411,169 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Rayonier by 29.2% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,839,907 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $48,831,000 after purchasing an additional 416,048 shares in the last quarter. 89.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Rayonier

In related news, Chairman Eric J. Cremers sold 169,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.44, for a total transaction of $3,627,648.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman directly owned 709,583 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,213,459.52. This trade represents a 19.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Wayne Wasechek sold 2,920 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.17, for a total transaction of $61,816.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 115,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,445,770.10. The trade was a 2.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Company insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on RYN. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $24.00 price objective on shares of Rayonier in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Rayonier in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Raymond James Financial raised shares of Rayonier from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $26.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Rayonier from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $25.50.

Rayonier Stock Performance

RYN opened at $20.43 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a fifty day moving average of $20.95 and a 200 day moving average of $21.96. Rayonier Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.49 and a fifty-two week high of $27.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 3.23 and a current ratio of 3.26.

Rayonier (NYSE:RYN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.06 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $276.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $280.92 million. Rayonier had a net margin of 68.61% and a return on equity of 3.61%. Rayonier’s quarterly revenue was up 233.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.02) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Rayonier Inc. will post 0.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Rayonier Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 17th were paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 17th. Rayonier’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.10%.

Rayonier Profile

Rayonier, Inc (NYSE: RYN) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust specializing in timberland ownership and management. The company’s core business revolves around sustainably growing, harvesting, and marketing timber and timber-related products. Rayonier’s timberland portfolio encompasses approximately 2.7 million acres across the United States and New Zealand, focusing on softwood and hardwood fiber for use in paper, packaging and building materials.

Rayonier operates through two primary segments: Timber and Real Estate Solutions.