Rayonier Inc. (NYSE:RYN) Plans Special Dividend of $1.80

Rayonier Inc. (NYSE:RYN) declared a special dividend on Monday, December 2nd,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, December 12th will be given a dividend of 1.80 per share by the real estate investment trust on Thursday, January 30th. This is an increase from Rayonier’s previous special dividend of $0.20.

Rayonier has a dividend payout ratio of 207.3% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities analysts expect Rayonier to earn $0.52 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $1.14 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 219.2%.

Rayonier Price Performance

RYN stock traded up $0.20 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $31.67. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 91,975 shares, compared to its average volume of 605,364. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The company’s 50 day moving average is $31.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $30.40. Rayonier has a fifty-two week low of $27.40 and a fifty-two week high of $35.29. The stock has a market cap of $4.72 billion, a PE ratio of 29.70 and a beta of 1.02.

Rayonier (NYSE:RYN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $195.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $211.21 million. Rayonier had a return on equity of 2.95% and a net margin of 15.84%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.13 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Rayonier will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Rayonier declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, December 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $300.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the real estate investment trust to repurchase up to 6.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on RYN. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Rayonier from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. StockNews.com raised shares of Rayonier from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 16th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Rayonier

In related news, Director V. Larkin Martin sold 10,011 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.57, for a total transaction of $306,036.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 40,168 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,227,935.76. The trade was a 19.95 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Rayonier

Rayonier is a leading timberland real estate investment trust with assets located in some of the most productive softwood timber growing regions in the United States and New Zealand. As of December 31, 2023, Rayonier owned or leased under long-term agreements approximately 2.7 million acres of timberlands located in the U.S.