HighTower Advisors LLC Cuts Stake in STAG Industrial, Inc. (NYSE:STAG)

HighTower Advisors LLC cut its holdings in STAG Industrial, Inc. (NYSE:STAG) by 6.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,788 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 832 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in STAG Industrial were worth $432,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in STAG Industrial by 145.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,936,107 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $271,132,000 after buying an additional 4,111,268 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in STAG Industrial by 0.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,403,540 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $133,077,000 after purchasing an additional 21,925 shares during the last quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC raised its stake in STAG Industrial by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 2,259,638 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $76,421,000 after purchasing an additional 164,284 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its position in STAG Industrial by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,830,394 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $61,905,000 after purchasing an additional 79,762 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of STAG Industrial in the 4th quarter worth $57,561,000. 88.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

STAG Industrial Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE STAG opened at $36.14 on Tuesday. STAG Industrial, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.27 and a fifty-two week high of $41.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.36. The company has a market cap of $6.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.75 and a beta of 1.05. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $35.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.03.

STAG Industrial (NYSE:STAG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.43. STAG Industrial had a return on equity of 5.51% and a net margin of 24.64%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that STAG Industrial, Inc. will post 2.47 earnings per share for the current year.

STAG Industrial Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.1242 dividend. This represents a yield of 4.25%. This is a boost from STAG Industrial’s previous dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. STAG Industrial’s payout ratio is 143.27%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of STAG Industrial from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. Raymond James raised their price objective on STAG Industrial from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on STAG Industrial from $40.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $40.38.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Benjamin S. Butcher sold 50,000 shares of STAG Industrial stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.10, for a total value of $1,755,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,632 shares in the company, valued at $338,083.20. The trade was a 83.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

STAG Industrial Profile

STAG Industrial, Inc is a real estate investment company, which engages in acquiring, owning, and managing single-tenant, industrial real estate assets. It offers industrial real estate operating platform to real estate ownership. The company was founded by Benjamin S. Butcher on July 21, 2010 and is headquartered in Boston, MA.