Smead Capital Management Inc. Sells 65,700 Shares of West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. $WFG

Smead Capital Management Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. (NYSE:WFG) by 54.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 54,678 shares of the company’s stock after selling 65,700 shares during the quarter. Smead Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in West Fraser Timber were worth $3,345,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in West Fraser Timber by 31,861.9% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 896,852 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,968,000 after acquiring an additional 894,046 shares during the period. CenterBook Partners LP bought a new stake in West Fraser Timber during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,358,000. Lightrock Netherlands B.V. raised its holdings in West Fraser Timber by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Lightrock Netherlands B.V. now owns 275,803 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,749,000 after acquiring an additional 16,500 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in West Fraser Timber by 77.7% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 56,435 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,837,000 after acquiring an additional 24,672 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in West Fraser Timber by 58.0% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 262,556 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,845,000 after acquiring an additional 96,414 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WFG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Raymond James Financial cut shares of West Fraser Timber from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $85.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of West Fraser Timber in a report on Monday, April 20th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of West Fraser Timber from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. Fraser Mackenzie lowered their target price on shares of West Fraser Timber from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of West Fraser Timber from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $82.60.

West Fraser Timber Stock Up 0.6%

WFG opened at $62.25 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $63.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $64.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.73 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.14 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 0.66. West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. has a one year low of $57.34 and a one year high of $78.55.

West Fraser Timber (NYSE:WFG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported ($2.40) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.23) by ($1.17). The firm had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.32 billion. West Fraser Timber had a negative net margin of 21.86% and a negative return on equity of 9.67%. Equities research analysts expect that West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. will post -3.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

West Fraser Timber 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.