Alesco Advisors LLC An ESL Co Makes New Investment in West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. $WFG

Alesco Advisors LLC An ESL Co purchased a new stake in shares of West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. (NYSE:WFG) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 14,157 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $924,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its position in West Fraser Timber by 72.2% during the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 439 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN lifted its holdings in West Fraser Timber by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 7,832 shares of the company’s stock worth $478,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in West Fraser Timber by 177.0% during the 1st quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 579 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 370 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC boosted its stake in West Fraser Timber by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 5,967 shares of the company’s stock valued at $365,000 after purchasing an additional 491 shares during the period. Finally, EFG International AG acquired a new position in West Fraser Timber in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. 40.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on WFG. Fraser Mackenzie dropped their price objective on shares of West Fraser Timber from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of West Fraser Timber from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $85.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Zacks Research raised West Fraser Timber from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on West Fraser Timber from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price target on West Fraser Timber from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.60.

West Fraser Timber Stock Performance

Shares of West Fraser Timber stock opened at $64.90 on Wednesday. West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $57.34 and a fifty-two week high of $76.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.08 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.32 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $66.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $66.62.

West Fraser Timber (NYSE:WFG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported ($2.40) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.23) by ($1.17). West Fraser Timber had a negative return on equity of 9.67% and a negative net margin of 21.86%.The firm had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.32 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. will post -3.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

West Fraser Timber Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 25th were issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 25th. West Fraser Timber’s payout ratio is -8.51%.

West Fraser Timber Company Profile

West Fraser Timber Co Ltd. (NYSE: WFG) is a leading North American diversified wood products company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company operates a broad portfolio of manufacturing facilities that produce lumber, engineered wood products such as laminated veneer lumber (LVL), oriented strand board (OSB) and plywood, as well as medium density fibreboard (MDF), particleboard, pulp and paper. West Fraser’s integrated production model spans harvesting, milling and finishing, allowing it to serve a wide range of residential, commercial and industrial construction markets.

Founded in 1955 as West Fraser Mills, the company has grown through both organic investment and strategic acquisitions to become one of the largest lumber producers in the world.