Halloween Hangover: Timber REIT Returns and Timberland Markets
Posted by Brooks Mendell at Forisk
This is the third in a series related to the Q4 2018 Forisk Research Quarterly and Forisk’s annual “Wood Flows & Cash Flows” event on December 13thin Atlanta.
Sometimes you feel like a nut, and sometimes you don’t. Rising interest rates, slower housing, disruptive tariffs and trade policy, and the associated volatility in public markets produced a punishing quarter for public timber REIT values, while private timberlands held steady.
Public timber REITs returned -22.8% YTD through the last Friday of October 2018. Over the past twelve months, Rayonier (RYN), which currently comprises 15% of the timber REIT sector, led the sector with a 2.4% gain. Among public timberland-owning vehicles tracked in the FRQ, only Rayonier, among timber REITs, and master limited partnership (MLP) Pope Resources (ticker: POPE) netted positive stock price appreciation over the past twelve months.