Barclays Lowers EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) Price Target to $193.00

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) had its price target trimmed by Barclays from $198.00 to $193.00 in a research note released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

EGP has been the subject of a number of other reports. Evercore ISI increased their price target on EastGroup Properties from $204.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of EastGroup Properties from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and raised their price objective for the company from $179.00 to $214.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on EastGroup Properties from $178.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Wedbush boosted their target price on EastGroup Properties from $208.00 to $209.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of EastGroup Properties from $176.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $191.73.

EastGroup Properties Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of EastGroup Properties stock opened at $178.36 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $184.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $175.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a current ratio of 0.21. EastGroup Properties has a fifty-two week low of $154.75 and a fifty-two week high of $192.61. The company has a market cap of $8.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.99.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.05 by ($0.91). The firm had revenue of $159.09 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.70 million. EastGroup Properties had a net margin of 37.16% and a return on equity of 8.69%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that EastGroup Properties will post 8.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

EastGroup Properties Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of $1.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.14%. This is a positive change from EastGroup Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. EastGroup Properties’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 121.48%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EGP. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in EastGroup Properties by 3.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,863,129 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,233,785,000 after purchasing an additional 210,207 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of EastGroup Properties by 7.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 975,450 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $175,359,000 after acquiring an additional 71,614 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its holdings in shares of EastGroup Properties by 26.1% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 953,736 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $171,399,000 after acquiring an additional 197,427 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of EastGroup Properties by 7.9% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 728,092 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $123,848,000 after purchasing an additional 53,083 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of EastGroup Properties by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 479,323 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $81,533,000 after purchasing an additional 2,418 shares during the period. 92.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

EastGroup Properties Company Profile

EastGroup Properties, Inc (NYSE: EGP), a member of the S&P Mid-Cap 400 and Russell 1000 Indexes, is a self-administered equity real estate investment trust focused on the development, acquisition and operation of industrial properties in major Sunbelt markets throughout the United States with an emphasis in the states of Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and North Carolina.