EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) Receives $191.20 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $192.00.

EGP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. KeyCorp raised their target price on EastGroup Properties from $178.00 to $198.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Wedbush raised their price target on EastGroup Properties from $208.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on EastGroup Properties in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $167.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on EastGroup Properties from $158.00 to $186.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 22nd. Finally, Mizuho raised EastGroup Properties from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $175.00 to $200.00 in a report on Thursday, September 5th.

EastGroup Properties Stock Performance

EGP stock opened at $190.24 on Tuesday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $9.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.27, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.99. EastGroup Properties has a 1 year low of $154.75 and a 1 year high of $192.61. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $184.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $174.45.

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

EastGroup Properties Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a dividend of $1.40 per share. This is a positive change from EastGroup Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. EastGroup Properties’s payout ratio is presently 121.48%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in EastGroup Properties by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 8,471 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,555,000 after purchasing an additional 283 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new position in EastGroup Properties in the 4th quarter worth about $69,000. Versor Investments LP purchased a new position in EastGroup Properties in the 4th quarter worth about $447,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in EastGroup Properties by 370.1% in the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 54,097 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $9,929,000 after purchasing an additional 42,589 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in EastGroup Properties by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 666,304 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $122,295,000 after purchasing an additional 29,479 shares in the last quarter. 92.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.