Northern Trust Corp Acquires 197,719 Shares of Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT)

Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) by 14.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,569,301 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 197,719 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned approximately 1.18% of Redwood Trust worth $10,248,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Redwood Trust by 14.1% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 154,404 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,009,000 after acquiring an additional 19,094 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its stake in Redwood Trust by 239.3% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 12,566 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $82,000 after purchasing an additional 8,863 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Redwood Trust by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 75,463 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $493,000 after purchasing an additional 5,951 shares in the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management acquired a new stake in shares of Redwood Trust in the 4th quarter valued at about $74,000. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Redwood Trust by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 1,190,050 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $7,771,000 after purchasing an additional 76,450 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.34% of the company’s stock.

Redwood Trust Stock Performance

Shares of RWT stock opened at $6.01 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $5.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $6.41. Redwood Trust, Inc. has a one year low of $4.68 and a one year high of $8.15. The stock has a market cap of $799.37 million, a P/E ratio of 18.20 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 14.09, a current ratio of 44.36 and a quick ratio of 44.36.

Redwood Trust (NYSE:RWT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by ($0.03). Redwood Trust had a net margin of 9.35% and a return on equity of 6.91%. The firm had revenue of $73.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $26.55 million. As a group, equities analysts predict that Redwood Trust, Inc. will post 0.78 EPS for the current year.

Redwood Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 24th were given a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 24th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.99%. Redwood Trust’s payout ratio is 327.27%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on RWT. StockNews.com upgraded Redwood Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. JMP Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Redwood Trust from $8.00 to $7.50 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Redwood Trust from $6.50 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Jones Trading reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $7.00 target price on shares of Redwood Trust in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on shares of Redwood Trust from $7.75 to $7.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Redwood Trust presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $7.44.

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.