Earnings Preview: Weyerhaeuser

NEW YORK (AP) — Weyerhaeuser Co., a major lumber and wood products supplier, is scheduled to report earnings for the third quarter Friday. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the period.

OVERVIEW: Corporations like Weyerhaeuser Co., a big timber and wood products enterprise, thrive when companies that build homes are busy. As long as home builders are buying lots of two-by-fours, Weyerhaeuser makes money.

Unfortunately for Weyerhaeuser and its stockholders, home builders still are not busy. Residential construction isn't declining any more but neither is it on the rebound.

As a result, Weyerhaeuser remains focused on preserving cash. In July it cut its quarterly dividend again, this time by 80 percent to 5 cents. That follows a reduction last December to 25 cents from 60 cents. In August it sold about 140,000 acres of forest land in northwestern Oregon for about $300 million. More such sales may be announced soon.

Weyerhaeuser issued $500 million in notes during the quarter.

BY THE NUMBERS: Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect, on average, the company to lose 45 cents per share on revenue of $1.42 billion. That compares with the year-earlier period when Weyerhaeuser posted an adjusted loss of 1 cent per share on sales of $2.62 billion.