Millennium Management LLC Acquires 986,863 Shares of Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ)

Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) by 400.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,233,050 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 986,863 shares during the quarter. Millennium Management LLC’s holdings in Cousins Properties were worth $37,781,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its stake in Cousins Properties by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 466,850 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $14,304,000 after purchasing an additional 21,939 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Cousins Properties by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,677,769 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $82,047,000 after purchasing an additional 189,411 shares during the period. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in Cousins Properties by 23.2% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 6,027 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $185,000 after purchasing an additional 1,135 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Cousins Properties by 24.5% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 36,162 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,108,000 after purchasing an additional 7,119 shares during the period. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Cousins Properties by 13.9% during the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 250,886 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $7,609,000 after acquiring an additional 30,600 shares during the last quarter. 94.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cousins Properties Stock Performance

NYSE:CUZ opened at $28.68 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $27.93 and its 200 day moving average is $29.58. Cousins Properties Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $22.01 and a fifty-two week high of $32.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.81 billion, a PE ratio of 95.58, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.03. Cousins Properties had a return on equity of 1.00% and a net margin of 5.36%. The company had revenue of $6.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $238.49 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.65 EPS. Cousins Properties’s quarterly revenue was up 16.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cousins Properties Incorporated will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Cousins Properties Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were paid a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.46%. Cousins Properties’s payout ratio is 387.88%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Cousins Properties in a research report on Monday, March 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $35.00 target price for the company. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Cousins Properties from $34.00 to $33.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded Cousins Properties from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $31.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Cousins Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Cousins Properties from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cousins Properties presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.70.

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.