Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Acquires New Position in Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. bought a new position in shares of Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 5,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $39,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Redwood Trust by 19.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,504,440 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $98,763,000 after buying an additional 2,530,937 shares during the period. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC lifted its position in Redwood Trust by 48.8% during the 2nd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 906,512 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,883,000 after acquiring an additional 297,100 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in Redwood Trust by 21.7% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 976,283 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,336,000 after purchasing an additional 174,317 shares during the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its stake in Redwood Trust by 549.0% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 128,463 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $834,000 after purchasing an additional 108,669 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Redwood Trust in the third quarter valued at about $722,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.34% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on RWT. Wedbush upped their target price on Redwood Trust from $6.50 to $7.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Redwood Trust from $7.50 to $8.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Redwood Trust from $8.50 to $9.50 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Redwood Trust from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Redwood Trust from $8.50 to $9.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Redwood Trust presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $8.19.

Redwood Trust Stock Performance

NYSE RWT opened at $7.19 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $951.02 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.07 and a beta of 1.59. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $7.41 and a 200 day moving average of $7.10. The company has a current ratio of 44.36, a quick ratio of 44.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 14.55. Redwood Trust, Inc. has a twelve month low of $5.45 and a twelve month high of $8.15.

Redwood Trust Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is a positive change from Redwood Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.46%. Redwood Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 123.64%.

Redwood Trust Profile

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.