Short Interest in Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) Grows By 19.0%

Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 5,440,000 shares, a growth of 19.0% from the February 13th total of 4,570,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,420,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.8 days. Approximately 3.3% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CUZ. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Cousins Properties from $34.00 to $33.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Mizuho upgraded Cousins Properties from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $22.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Cousins Properties from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $34.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Cousins Properties from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on Cousins Properties from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.89.

Cousins Properties Stock Up 0.3 %

NYSE:CUZ traded up $0.08 on Thursday, reaching $29.87. The stock had a trading volume of 312,014 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,205,559. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The company has a 50-day moving average of $29.92 and a 200 day moving average of $30.17. The stock has a market cap of $5.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 99.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.28. Cousins Properties has a 12-month low of $21.58 and a 12-month high of $32.55.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.62. Cousins Properties had a net margin of 5.36% and a return on equity of 1.00%. On average, research analysts predict that Cousins Properties will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Cousins Properties Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.29%. Cousins Properties’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 426.67%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cousins Properties

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its stake in Cousins Properties by 1,609.3% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 923 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 869 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of Cousins Properties by 67.4% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 981 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 395 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Cousins Properties by 49.7% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,319 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 438 shares in the last quarter. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. bought a new position in Cousins Properties in the 4th quarter worth approximately $85,000. Finally, FIL Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Cousins Properties by 24.6% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 3,262 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $100,000 after buying an additional 643 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.38% of the company’s stock.

Cousins Properties Company Profile

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.