Raymond James & Associates Decreases Stock Holdings in EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP)

Raymond James & Associates lowered its stake in shares of EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 111,955 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,482 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates owned approximately 0.23% of EastGroup Properties worth $20,915,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in EGP. Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its position in EastGroup Properties by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 3,235 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $581,000 after purchasing an additional 454 shares during the period. OneAscent Financial Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of EastGroup Properties by 12.1% in the first quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC now owns 2,371 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $426,000 after acquiring an additional 256 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. increased its position in EastGroup Properties by 10.1% during the first quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,289 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $591,000 after acquiring an additional 303 shares during the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System lifted its holdings in EastGroup Properties by 5.4% in the first quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 11,727 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,108,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the period. Finally, Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV boosted its position in EastGroup Properties by 4.8% in the first quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV now owns 2,730 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $491,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on EGP. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of EastGroup Properties from $178.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Mizuho upgraded shares of EastGroup Properties from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $175.00 to $200.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on EastGroup Properties from $204.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded EastGroup Properties from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $179.00 to $214.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on EastGroup Properties from $172.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, EastGroup Properties has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $191.73.

EastGroup Properties Stock Performance

EGP opened at $176.53 on Friday. 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 $8.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.93, a PEG ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a fifty day moving average of $184.09 and a 200 day moving average of $175.43. EastGroup Properties, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $155.23 and a fifty-two week high of $192.61.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.10 by ($0.97). The firm had revenue of $162.88 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $161.52 million. EastGroup Properties had a return on equity of 8.69% and a net margin of 37.16%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.95 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that EastGroup Properties, Inc. will post 8.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

EastGroup Properties Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a $1.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. 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 dividend yield of 3.17%. EastGroup Properties’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 117.15%.

EastGroup Properties 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.