Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.60 EPS

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) released its earnings results on Thursday. The real estate investment trust reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by ($0.60), Zacks reports. Cousins Properties had a return on equity of 1.31% and a net margin of 7.25%. The firm had revenue of $209.21 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $212.54 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.65 earnings per share. Cousins Properties’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Cousins Properties updated its FY24 guidance to $2.66-2.70 EPS and its FY 2024 guidance to 2.660-2.700 EPS.

Cousins Properties Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:CUZ traded up $0.17 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $31.54. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,625,314 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,303,659. Cousins Properties has a fifty-two week low of $17.40 and a fifty-two week high of $32.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $29.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 64.37, a PEG ratio of 4.41 and a beta of 1.30.

Cousins Properties Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 3rd were given a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 3rd. Cousins Properties’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 261.22%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on CUZ. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Cousins Properties from $26.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Cousins Properties from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Cousins Properties from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Cousins Properties from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on Cousins Properties from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Jeffrey D. Symes sold 5,997 shares of Cousins Properties stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.13, for a total transaction of $168,695.61. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,529 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $352,440.77. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

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.