EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $1.40

EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, March 7th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 1.40 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.04%.

EastGroup Properties has increased its dividend payment by an average of 15.3% annually over the last three years. EastGroup Properties has a payout ratio of 102.6% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities analysts expect EastGroup Properties to earn $9.73 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 57.6%.

EastGroup Properties Stock Performance

Shares of EGP opened at $184.51 on Friday. EastGroup Properties has a 12-month low of $155.10 and a 12-month high of $192.61. The company has a current ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 0.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The company has a market cap of $9.60 billion, a PE ratio of 39.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.99. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $171.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $175.36.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.16 by $0.99. EastGroup Properties had a net margin of 35.57% and a return on equity of 7.89%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that EastGroup Properties will post 8.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. StockNews.com upgraded EastGroup Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of EastGroup Properties from $186.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 30th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of EastGroup Properties from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of EastGroup Properties in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Raymond James upgraded EastGroup Properties from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $185.00 to $200.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, EastGroup Properties has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $191.65.

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.