EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP - Get Free Report) has been given an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the fourteen analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eight have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $192.57.

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com cut EastGroup Properties from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Monday. Mizuho upgraded shares of EastGroup Properties from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their price target for the company from $175.00 to $200.00 in a report on Thursday, September 5th. KeyCorp boosted 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. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of EastGroup Properties from $176.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of EastGroup Properties from $158.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, August 22nd.

Institutional Trading of EastGroup Properties

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in EastGroup Properties by 3.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,863,129 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,233,785,000 after buying an additional 210,207 shares in the last quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of EastGroup Properties during the 2nd quarter valued at about $35,131,000. Boston Partners increased its stake in shares of EastGroup Properties by 26.1% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 953,736 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $171,399,000 after purchasing an additional 197,427 shares in the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP raised its holdings in EastGroup Properties by 465.6% in the 1st quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 200,558 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $36,054,000 after purchasing an additional 165,100 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in EastGroup Properties by 202.1% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 188,336 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $32,036,000 after purchasing an additional 125,991 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.14% of the company's stock.

EastGroup Properties Stock Up 0.4 %

NYSE EGP traded up $0.63 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $174.67. 66,497 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 297,495. EastGroup Properties has a 12-month low of $155.23 and a 12-month high of $192.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.21 and a quick ratio of 0.21. The firm has a market cap of $8.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.99. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $183.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $175.48.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $162.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $161.52 million. EastGroup Properties had a net margin of 37.16% and a return on equity of 8.69%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.95 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that EastGroup Properties will post 8.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

EastGroup Properties Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were given a $1.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.21%. This is a positive change from EastGroup Properties's previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. EastGroup Properties's dividend payout ratio is currently 115.70%.

EastGroup Properties Company 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.