STAG Industrial, Inc. (NYSE:STAG) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of STAG Industrial, Inc. (NYSE:STAG) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $40.38.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on STAG. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of 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. Raymond James lifted their target price on STAG Industrial from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on STAG Industrial from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Benjamin S. Butcher sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 9,632 shares in the company, valued at $338,083.20. This trade represents a 83.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in STAG Industrial by 30.1% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,024,946 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $305,224,000 after acquiring an additional 2,088,839 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC raised its position in shares of STAG Industrial by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,795,425 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $128,361,000 after acquiring an additional 235,622 shares during the period. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of STAG Industrial by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 3,679,641 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $124,445,000 after acquiring an additional 204,948 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of STAG Industrial by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,421,549 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $115,748,000 after purchasing an additional 18,009 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in STAG Industrial by 7.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,169,164 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $123,883,000 after purchasing an additional 227,629 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.67% of the company’s stock.

STAG Industrial Trading Down 0.6 %

STAG opened at $36.16 on Thursday. 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 stock’s 50 day moving average price is $34.75 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.49. STAG Industrial has a one year low of $32.27 and a one year high of $41.63. The stock has a market cap of $6.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.76 and a beta of 1.05.

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 the consensus estimate 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, equities analysts forecast that STAG Industrial will post 2.47 EPS for the current year.

STAG Industrial Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.1242 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a dividend yield of 4.25%. This is an increase from STAG Industrial’s previous dividend of $0.12. STAG Industrial’s dividend payout ratio is 143.27%.

About STAG Industrial

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.