Geode Capital Management LLC Acquires 173,704 Shares of Rayonier Inc. $RYN

Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Rayonier Inc. (NYSE:RYN) by 6.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,089,936 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 173,704 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Rayonier were worth $66,910,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Hartford Financial Management Inc. boosted its stake in Rayonier by 49.7% during the fourth quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 1,732 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 575 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Rayonier by 77.9% during the third quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,451 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 1,073 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake in Rayonier by 134.8% during the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,858 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $76,000 after acquiring an additional 1,641 shares in the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. bought a new stake in Rayonier during the third quarter worth about $86,000. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in Rayonier by 238.7% during the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 3,343 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $89,000 after acquiring an additional 2,356 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Rayonier news, CFO Wayne Wasechek sold 2,920 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 115,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,445,770.10. This represents a 2.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through 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. Corporate insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on RYN. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective 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. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Rayonier from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Rayonier from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Rayonier from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 18th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada set a $24.00 target price on shares of Rayonier in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. One research 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Rayonier has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $24.80.

Rayonier Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of Rayonier stock opened at $20.81 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $6.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.89 and a beta of 0.88. The company’s 50 day moving average is $20.82 and its 200 day moving average is $21.61. Rayonier Inc. has a twelve month low of $19.49 and a twelve month high of $27.33. The company has a quick ratio of 2.21, a current ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Rayonier (NYSE:RYN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $276.79 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $280.92 million. Rayonier had a net margin of 68.61% and a return on equity of 3.61%. The firm’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 firm earned ($0.02) earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Rayonier Inc. will post 0.36 EPS for the current year.

Rayonier Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 16th. Rayonier’s dividend payout ratio is currently 34.44%.

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.