Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) Short Interest Up 47.9% in February

Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ - Get Free Report) saw a large growth in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,570,000 shares, a growth of 47.9% from the January 31st total of 3,090,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,340,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.4 days.

Institutional Trading of Cousins Properties

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of Cousins Properties by 36.2% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 29,316 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $864,000 after acquiring an additional 7,788 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of Cousins Properties by 1,481.1% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 6,530 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $193,000 after buying an additional 6,117 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cousins Properties in the 3rd quarter worth about $863,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Cousins Properties by 34.8% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 5,903 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $173,000 after purchasing an additional 1,523 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its holdings in shares of Cousins Properties by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 36,509 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,059,000 after purchasing an additional 1,626 shares during the period. 94.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CUZ. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Cousins Properties from $34.00 to $33.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Truist Financial raised their target price on Cousins Properties from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Cousins Properties from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $34.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com downgraded Cousins Properties from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded Cousins Properties from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cousins Properties has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $33.00.

Cousins Properties Price Performance

Shares of CUZ traded up $0.20 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $29.21. 405,648 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,293,321. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.90 billion, a PE ratio of 97.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $30.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.08. Cousins Properties has a fifty-two week low of $21.58 and a fifty-two week high of $32.55. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.62. Cousins Properties had a net margin of 5.36% and a return on equity of 1.00%. As a group, research analysts predict that Cousins Properties will post 2.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cousins Properties Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.38%. Cousins Properties's payout ratio is currently 426.67%.

About Cousins Properties

Cousins Properties Incorporated ("Cousins") is a fully integrated, self-administered, and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company, based in Atlanta and acting through its operating partnership, Cousins Properties LP, primarily invests in Class A office buildings located in high-growth Sun Belt markets.