Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $7.84.

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com upgraded Redwood Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. JMP Securities decreased their price objective on shares of Redwood Trust from $9.00 to $8.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Redwood Trust from $7.00 to $6.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Redwood Trust

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Redwood Trust by 6.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 14,611,264 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $112,945,000 after purchasing an additional 941,223 shares in the last quarter. NFC Investments LLC boosted its stake in Redwood Trust by 127.7% in the third quarter. NFC Investments LLC now owns 484,975 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,749,000 after acquiring an additional 271,975 shares in the last quarter. Angel Oak Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Redwood Trust in the fourth quarter worth $1,726,000. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Redwood Trust by 22.8% during the third quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 1,113,600 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $8,608,000 after purchasing an additional 207,088 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Redwood Trust by 18.0% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,085,593 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,089,000 after purchasing an additional 165,281 shares in the last quarter. 74.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Redwood Trust Stock Up 1.1 %

NYSE RWT opened at $6.55 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 44.36, a current ratio of 44.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 14.55. Redwood Trust has a 52 week low of $5.45 and a 52 week high of $8.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $868.01 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.91 and a beta of 1.57. The company has a fifty day moving average of $6.70 and a two-hundred day moving average of $7.16.

Redwood Trust (NYSE:RWT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.04. Redwood Trust had a net margin of 9.35% and a return on equity of 6.01%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.09 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Redwood Trust will post 0.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Redwood Trust Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 10.99%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This is a boost from Redwood Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. Redwood Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 130.91%.

About Redwood Trust

Redwood Trust, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a specialty finance company in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Residential Consumer Mortgage Banking, Residential Investor Mortgage Banking, and Investment Portfolio. The Residential Consumer Mortgage Banking segment operates a mortgage loan conduit that acquires residential loans from third-party originators for subsequent sale, securitization, or transfer to its investment portfolio.