Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Grows Stake in Rayonier Inc. $RYN

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund grew its stake in shares of Rayonier Inc. (NYSE:RYN) by 92.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 57,057 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 27,400 shares during the quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Rayonier were worth $1,177,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Rayonier by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC now owns 12,942 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $280,000 after purchasing an additional 469 shares in the last quarter. Bfsg LLC grew its position in Rayonier by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 78,219 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,693,000 after purchasing an additional 492 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP increased its stake in Rayonier by 19.8% during the 4th quarter. Quarry LP now owns 3,012 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $65,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares in the last quarter. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. increased its stake in Rayonier by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. now owns 10,802 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $234,000 after purchasing an additional 502 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hartford Financial Management Inc. raised its holdings in Rayonier by 49.7% in the fourth quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 1,732 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 575 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on RYN. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Rayonier from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 19th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Rayonier from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $24.00 price objective on shares of Rayonier in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Wall Street Zen raised Rayonier from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 18th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on Rayonier from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Rayonier currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $24.80.

Rayonier Price Performance

NYSE RYN opened at $21.48 on Tuesday. Rayonier Inc. has a one year low of $19.49 and a one year high of $27.33. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $20.92 and a 200 day moving average of $21.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 2.21 and a current ratio of 2.53. The company has a market capitalization of $6.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.11 and a beta of 0.88.

Rayonier (NYSE:RYN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.06 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $276.79 million for 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%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 233.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.02) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Rayonier Inc. will post 0.36 EPS for the current year.

Rayonier Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 16th were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 16th. Rayonier’s payout ratio is presently 34.44%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Wayne Wasechek sold 2,920 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owned 115,530 shares in the company, valued at $2,445,770.10. This represents a 2.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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. 0.85% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Rayonier

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.