Moors & Cabot Inc. Boosts Stake in STAG Industrial, Inc. (NYSE:STAG)

Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its holdings in STAG Industrial, Inc. (NYSE:STAG) by 7.5% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 81,980 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,748 shares during the quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc.’s holdings in STAG Industrial were worth $2,956,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in STAG Industrial by 0.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,237,263 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,008,560,000 after acquiring an additional 176,332 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of STAG Industrial by 6.2% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,865,673 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $103,333,000 after purchasing an additional 167,532 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp lifted its stake in STAG Industrial by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 2,552,752 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $92,052,000 after buying an additional 25,779 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in STAG Industrial in the 4th quarter valued at about $69,990,000. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its holdings in STAG Industrial by 7.0% in the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,776,042 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $64,045,000 after buying an additional 115,480 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.67% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on STAG. BNP Paribas began coverage on STAG Industrial in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $39.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on STAG Industrial from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Wedbush lifted their target price on shares of STAG Industrial from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of STAG Industrial from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of STAG Industrial from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $41.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other STAG Industrial news, Director Benjamin S. Butcher sold 34,000 shares of STAG Industrial stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.78, for a total value of $1,386,520.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 8,758 shares in the company, valued at $357,151.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

STAG Industrial Price Performance

Shares of STAG stock opened at $39.89 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $39.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.29. STAG Industrial, Inc. has a 12 month low of $31.69 and a 12 month high of $41.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 1.60. The company has a market capitalization of $7.26 billion, a PE ratio of 39.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.07 and a beta of 1.09.

STAG Industrial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 1st were issued a $0.1233 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 31st. This is a boost from STAG Industrial’s previous dividend of $0.12. This represents a yield of 3.63%. STAG Industrial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 148.00%.

About STAG Industrial

We are a REIT focused on the acquisition, ownership, and operation of industrial properties throughout the United States. Our platform is designed to (i) identify properties for acquisition that offer relative value across CBRE-EA Tier 1 industrial real estate markets, industries, and tenants through the principled application of our proprietary risk assessment model, (ii) provide growth through sophisticated industrial operation and an attractive opportunity set, and (iii) capitalize our business appropriately given the characteristics of our assets.