Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) Hits New 52-Week High on Analyst Upgrade

Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday after Robert W. Baird raised their price target on the stock from $29.00 to $31.00. Robert W. Baird currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Cousins Properties traded as high as $27.81 and last traded at $27.49, with a volume of 332981 shares. The stock had previously closed at $27.20.

CUZ has been the subject of several other reports. Barclays raised their price objective on Cousins Properties from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com upgraded Cousins Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cousins Properties has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $25.43.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Gregg D. Adzema sold 71,097 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.31, for a total value of $1,657,271.07. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 85,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,001,676.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cousins Properties

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in Cousins Properties by 26.9% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 28,295 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $689,000 after purchasing an additional 6,002 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in Cousins Properties by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 243,894 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,939,000 after acquiring an additional 16,817 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Cousins Properties by 78.7% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 22,821 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $556,000 after acquiring an additional 10,048 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Cousins Properties by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 84,730 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,063,000 after purchasing an additional 3,592 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Cousins Properties by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 234,362 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,798,000 after purchasing an additional 788 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.38% of the company’s stock.

Cousins Properties Stock Up 1.3 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $23.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $23.29. The firm has a market cap of $4.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.27, a PEG ratio of 4.53 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.61). The business had revenue of $212.98 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $208.18 million. Cousins Properties had a return on equity of 1.31% and a net margin of 7.25%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.75 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cousins Properties Incorporated will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cousins Properties Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 3rd were given a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 3rd. Cousins Properties’s dividend payout ratio is currently 261.22%.

About Cousins Properties

Cousins Properties Incorporated ("Cousins") is a fully integrated, self-administered, and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company, based in Atlanta and acting through its operating partnership, Cousins Properties LP, primarily invests in Class A office buildings located in high-growth Sun Belt markets.