Wells Fargo & Company Upgrades EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) to Overweight

Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research note released on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has $214.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their prior target price of $179.00.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Barclays increased their price target on EastGroup Properties from $175.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on shares of EastGroup Properties in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. They issued a neutral rating and a $167.00 price objective for the company. Truist Financial lifted their price target on EastGroup Properties from $176.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on EastGroup Properties from $190.00 to $183.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on EastGroup Properties from $178.00 to $198.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, EastGroup Properties presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $189.53.

EastGroup Properties Stock Performance

EGP stock opened at $186.40 on Wednesday. EastGroup Properties has a twelve month low of $154.75 and a twelve month high of $192.61. The firm has a market cap of $8.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.43, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.98. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $181.22 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $174.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.05 by ($0.91). The company had revenue of $159.09 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $156.70 million. EastGroup Properties had a net margin of 37.16% and a return on equity of 8.69%. EastGroup Properties’s quarterly revenue was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. Analysts predict that EastGroup Properties will post 8.3 earnings per share for the current year.

EastGroup Properties Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of $1.40 per share. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This is an increase from EastGroup Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. EastGroup Properties’s payout ratio is currently 121.48%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new position in shares of EastGroup Properties in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Gradient Investments LLC purchased a new stake in EastGroup Properties during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. Quest Partners LLC grew its stake in EastGroup Properties by 10,400.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 210 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 208 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new position in shares of EastGroup Properties in the first quarter worth about $42,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of EastGroup Properties by 1,938.5% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 265 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 252 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.14% of the company’s stock.

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.