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In 2011, timberland-owning REITs, as a sector, outperformed the S&P 500. As measured by the Forisk Timber REIT (FTR) Index, publicly-traded timber REITs returned 5.69% versus 0.00% for the S&P (see tables). The FTR Total Returns Index, which accounts for more…
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported on the rush of investors buying into publicly-traded real estate investment trusts (“Real-estate investors target neighborhood that is looking up,” Wall Street Journal, 11/15/11). According to Citigroup Global Markets, investors, year-to-date, invested 18% more…
Last week, all four publicly-traded, timberland-owning REITs announced and reviewed their third quarter 2011 results (just in time to catch Game 7 of a heart-thumping World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers). All firms met or exceeded more…
While publicly-traded timberland-owning REITs, and REITs generally, outperformed the S&P 500 over 10-year, 3-year and 1-year benchmarks (see table), the sector took a shellacking during the third quarter of 2011. The Wall Street Journal profiled the “dethroning” of REITs as more…
If you invest, isn’t all income “good”? Not according to the IRS when it comes to real estate investment trusts (REITs). Generally, 95% of a REIT’s gross income must be derived from rents from real property, aka “good income.” For more…
Last week, Fitch Ratings raised its outlook on Weyerhaeuser (WY) from “negative” to “stable” and affirmed its rating at “BB+”. Fitch justified the action primarily on WY’s Pulp business and core Timberland operations, though the rating agency recognized that the more…
Risk management is back in vogue. S&P’s downgrading of US sovereign debt last Friday to AA+ from AAA sparked sell-offs across world markets. Yesterday (Monday August 8, 2011) scored Wall Street its worst day in over two-and-a-half years. Meanwhile, how more…
Last week, we posted how Plum Creek (PCL) and Potlatch (PCH) offset weak log markets in 2Q 2011 with land sales. The balance of the public timber REITs, Rayonier (RYN) and Weyerhaeuser (WY), have also reported their results and, as more…
Who buys the trees grown by timberland-owning REITs? Timber REIT returns depend on strong demand from end-use markets for forest products such as lumber, plywood, pulp and OSB. This explains the dependence that timber REITs have on housing markets. Low more…
According to Forisk tracking of timberland ownership, 58 firms currently own or manage in excess of 100,000 acres of timberlands in the United States. These firms feature the following descriptive statistics: As a group, they own/manage 57.6 million acres of more…