Short Interest in Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) Rises By 27.1%

Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 6,977,416 shares, a growth of 27.1% from the February 26th total of 5,489,368 shares. Approximately 5.7% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,588,782 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.4 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on RWT shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Redwood Trust in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. JonesTrading restated a “buy” rating and set a $6.25 target price on shares of Redwood Trust in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Zacks Research upgraded Redwood Trust from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Redwood Trust from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $6.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Redwood Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $6.96.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Redwood Trust by 74.5% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 19,658 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $109,000 after purchasing an additional 8,390 shares during the period. TMB Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Redwood Trust during the 4th quarter worth approximately $64,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Redwood Trust by 25.4% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,551,067 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $14,107,000 after buying an additional 516,630 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its stake in Redwood Trust by 40.9% in the 4th quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 21,625 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $120,000 after buying an additional 6,281 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC grew its position in Redwood Trust by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 39,606 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $219,000 after acquiring an additional 1,773 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 74.34% of the company’s stock.

Redwood Trust Stock Performance

Shares of Redwood Trust stock traded up $0.16 during trading on Monday, reaching $5.45. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 294,489 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,678,724. Redwood Trust has a one year low of $4.68 and a one year high of $6.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 24.34, a quick ratio of 55.15 and a current ratio of 55.15. The firm has a market cap of $680.57 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.96 and a beta of 1.55. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $5.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $5.68.

Redwood Trust (NYSE:RWT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $140.33 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $24.88 million. Redwood Trust had a negative net margin of 5.93% and a positive return on equity of 12.00%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Redwood Trust will post 0.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Redwood Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 24th will be paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 24th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 13.2%. Redwood Trust’s payout ratio is presently -118.03%.

About Redwood Trust

Redwood Trust, Inc (NYSE:RWT) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust specializing in the U.S. residential mortgage market. Headquartered in Mill Valley, California, the company focuses on investing in a diversified portfolio of residential mortgage assets, including whole loans, agency and non-agency mortgage-backed securities, and structured credit products.

The company’s core activities encompass the acquisition, financing, and management of prime residential mortgage whole loans and mortgage-backed securities.