Vista Investment Partners LLC Invests $245,000 in Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT)

Vista Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 37,575 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $245,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in RWT. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Redwood Trust by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 14,611,264 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $112,945,000 after acquiring an additional 941,223 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Redwood Trust by 2.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,189,667 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $40,116,000 after purchasing an additional 102,274 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Redwood Trust by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,038,438 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $23,492,000 after buying an additional 25,444 shares during the last quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Redwood Trust by 22.8% in the third quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 1,113,600 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $8,608,000 after acquiring an additional 207,088 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NFC Investments LLC boosted its stake in Redwood Trust by 127.7% during the 3rd quarter. NFC Investments LLC now owns 484,975 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,749,000 after purchasing an additional 271,975 shares during the last quarter. 74.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Redwood Trust from $7.00 to $6.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Redwood Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, JMP Securities cut their price objective on Redwood Trust from $9.00 to $8.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $7.84.

Redwood Trust Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:RWT opened at $6.34 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 44.36, a quick ratio of 44.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 14.55. The company’s 50 day moving average is $6.74 and its two-hundred day moving average is $7.17. The company has a market cap of $839.51 million, a PE ratio of 11.52 and a beta of 1.57. Redwood Trust, Inc. has a 52 week low of $5.45 and a 52 week high of $8.15.

Redwood Trust (NYSE:RWT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.04. Redwood Trust had a net margin of 9.35% and a return on equity of 6.01%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.09 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Redwood Trust, Inc. will post 0.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Redwood Trust Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This is a positive change from Redwood Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 11.37%. Redwood Trust’s payout ratio is 130.91%.

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.