EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) Raised to Overweight at Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research report released on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $214.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their prior target price of $179.00.

Several other research firms also recently commented on EGP. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of EastGroup Properties from $178.00 to $198.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of EastGroup Properties from $190.00 to $183.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on EastGroup Properties from $158.00 to $186.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Thursday, August 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on EastGroup Properties from $172.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Mizuho cut their target price on EastGroup Properties from $185.00 to $175.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, EastGroup Properties presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $189.53.

EastGroup Properties Stock Performance

NYSE EGP opened at $186.29 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $8.97 billion, a PE ratio of 40.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a current ratio of 0.21. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $181.22 and a 200-day moving average of $174.15. EastGroup Properties has a 52-week low of $154.75 and a 52-week high of $192.61.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.05 by ($0.91). EastGroup Properties had a return on equity of 8.69% and a net margin of 37.16%. The company had revenue of $159.09 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.70 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that EastGroup Properties will post 8.3 EPS for the current year.

EastGroup Properties Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of $1.40 per share. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.01%. This is a boost from EastGroup Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. EastGroup Properties’s dividend payout ratio is currently 121.48%.

Institutional Trading of EastGroup Properties

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. SYSTM Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of EastGroup Properties by 24.2% in the 1st quarter. SYSTM Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 334 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of EastGroup Properties by 30.2% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 345 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $62,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Securian Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of EastGroup Properties by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Securian Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,945 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $724,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of EastGroup Properties by 0.3% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 31,093 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,328,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the period. Finally, Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV raised its holdings in EastGroup Properties by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV now owns 2,730 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $491,000 after buying an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.14% of the company’s stock.

About EastGroup Properties

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.