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

West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. (NYSE:WFG) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, December 11th,NASDAQ Dividends reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be given a dividend of 0.32 per share on Tuesday, January 14th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. This is a boost from West Fraser Timber’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24.

West Fraser Timber has increased its dividend 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. 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 Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE WFG opened at $87.75 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $7.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -68.55 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a 50 day moving average of $93.18 and a 200-day moving average of $88.53. West Fraser Timber has a 1-year low of $73.91 and a 1-year high of $102.40.

West Fraser Timber (NYSE:WFG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported ($1.03) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.16) by ($0.87). The company had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.81 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that West Fraser Timber will post 0.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of West Fraser Timber from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of West Fraser Timber from $105.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target 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.