Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) Increases Dividend to $0.17 Per Share

Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, September 11th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd will be given a dividend of 0.17 per share by the real estate investment trust on Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.58%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 23rd. This is a boost from Redwood Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16.

Redwood Trust has a payout ratio of 91.9% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Equities analysts expect Redwood Trust to earn $0.74 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 91.9%.

Redwood Trust Trading Down 1.6 %

RWT opened at $7.93 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.05 billion, a PE ratio of 113.29 and a beta of 1.58. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $7.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $6.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 12.97, a current ratio of 50.47 and a quick ratio of 50.47. Redwood Trust has a 12-month low of $5.45 and a 12-month high of $8.15.

Redwood Trust (NYSE:RWT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.01. Redwood Trust had a net margin of 4.45% and a return on equity of 4.93%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.14 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Redwood Trust will post 0.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on RWT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Redwood Trust from $7.00 to $7.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. JMP Securities increased their target price on shares of Redwood Trust from $8.00 to $8.50 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Wedbush increased their target price on shares of Redwood Trust from $6.50 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Redwood Trust from $8.50 to $9.50 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Redwood Trust from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Redwood Trust presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $8.08.

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.