Wells Fargo & Company Lowers EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) Price Target to $199.00

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) had its price target trimmed by Wells Fargo & Company from $214.00 to $199.00 in a research note published on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on EGP. StockNews.com cut EastGroup Properties from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of EastGroup Properties from $204.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Mizuho upgraded shares of EastGroup Properties from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $175.00 to $200.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of EastGroup Properties from $158.00 to $186.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 22nd. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on EastGroup Properties from $198.00 to $193.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $191.50.

EastGroup Properties Trading Down 0.8 %

NYSE EGP opened at $173.66 on Monday. EastGroup Properties has a 52 week low of $155.23 and a 52 week high of $192.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a current ratio of 0.08. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $181.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $175.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.88, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.00.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.10 by ($0.97). EastGroup Properties had a return on equity of 8.56% and a net margin of 37.19%. The business had revenue of $162.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $161.52 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.95 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that EastGroup Properties will post 8.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

EastGroup Properties Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were given a dividend of $1.40 per share. This is a boost from EastGroup Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.22%. EastGroup Properties’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 115.70%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On EastGroup Properties

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in EastGroup Properties by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,863,129 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,233,785,000 after purchasing an additional 210,207 shares in the last quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of EastGroup Properties in the second quarter valued at approximately $35,131,000. Boston Partners boosted its stake in shares of EastGroup Properties by 26.1% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 953,736 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $171,399,000 after buying an additional 197,427 shares during the period. Zimmer Partners LP grew its position in EastGroup Properties by 465.6% during the first quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 200,558 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $36,054,000 after buying an additional 165,100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in EastGroup Properties by 202.1% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 188,336 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $32,036,000 after acquiring an additional 125,991 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.