EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) Stock Rating Upgraded by Jefferies Financial Group

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) was upgraded by stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage presently has a $194.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their prior target price of $174.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 20.53% from the company’s current price.

EGP has been the subject of several other research reports. Raymond James upgraded shares of EastGroup Properties from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $185.00 to $200.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of EastGroup Properties from $204.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Barclays dropped their target price 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. Mizuho upgraded EastGroup Properties from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $175.00 to $200.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating on shares of EastGroup Properties in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $191.56.

EastGroup Properties Stock Up 1.7 %

EGP opened at $160.95 on Thursday. EastGroup Properties has a twelve month low of $155.23 and a twelve month high of $192.61. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $169.20 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $177.35. The stock has a market cap of $7.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.25, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $162.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $161.52 million. EastGroup Properties had a net margin of 37.19% and a return on equity of 8.56%. EastGroup Properties’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.95 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that EastGroup Properties will post 8.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of EastGroup Properties

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of EGP. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of EastGroup Properties by 18.7% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 602 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $97,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS purchased a new position in EastGroup Properties in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $296,000. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in EastGroup Properties by 337.0% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 49,097 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $8,728,000 after purchasing an additional 37,863 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of EastGroup Properties by 23.2% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 30,905 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,774,000 after purchasing an additional 5,811 shares during the period. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of EastGroup Properties by 46.7% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 7,370 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,267,000 after purchasing an additional 2,347 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.