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When tracking wood demand and timber markets, we look not only to the past and to the future for guidance, but also to the side – peripherally – to gauge performance across markets and sectors. Heather Clark, our Customer Relations more…
When studying exchange rates and currency markets, I sometimes think of the old joke “the quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and stick it back in your pocket.” Currency markets shake more than more…
Last week, I met with the CEO of one of world’s largest forest management and consulting firms. We ended up discussing a mutually perplexing question, “why do some timberland investors prioritize macro issues like housing at the expense of understanding more…
The 1970 movie “Sometimes a Great Notion”, based on the novel by Ken Kesey, centers on an independent logger in Wakonda, Oregon, and a battle between the local logging union and a lumber conglomerate. The patriarch of the logging family, more…
A duck walked into the doctor’s office and asked, “Doc, how do you treat timber REIT dividends?”…. Distributions from real estate investment trusts (REITs) have three elements: Distributions representing firm Operating Income are taxed at investors’ ordinary (marginal) tax rates. more…
Between April 25th and April 29th, all four public timberland-owning REITs reported their Q1 2011 financial performance. Three of the four firms reported earnings per share below Wall Street consensus expectations: Overall, results continue to reflect the US housing downturn more…
Recent comments by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairman Sheila Blair regarding minimum down-payments of up to 20% for “qualified residential mortgages” (QRM) echoed discussions about residential housing markets at the UGA Timberland Investment Conference. Our Equity Research Team (Neena more…
From the desk of Dr. Tim Sydor, Forest Economist: The 2011 Timberland Investment Conference, hosted last week by the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Center for Forest Business at Lake Oconee, attracted over 350 participants from all aspects of the timberland more…
An interesting report landed on our desk a few weeks ago, further reinforcing the sorry state of timberland market analysis available to timber REIT investors. The report, from Credit Suisse, makes assertions based on a careless and faulty application of more…
Last week, I spoke at the Global Real Assets Investment Forum in New York as part of the panel on “Timber in Institutional Portfolios.” My takeaway from participating in this event: institutional investors seem bored with timberlands. They showed more more…