EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) Short Interest Up 7.1% in September

EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 1,350,000 shares, an increase of 7.1% from the September 15th total of 1,260,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 312,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.3 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EastGroup Properties

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of EGP. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in EastGroup Properties by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,863,129 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,233,785,000 after purchasing an additional 210,207 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in EastGroup Properties by 7.9% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 975,450 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $175,359,000 after buying an additional 71,614 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its stake in EastGroup Properties by 26.1% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 953,736 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $171,399,000 after buying an additional 197,427 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in EastGroup Properties by 7.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 728,092 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $123,848,000 after acquiring an additional 53,083 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in EastGroup Properties by 0.5% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 479,323 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $81,533,000 after acquiring an additional 2,418 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EGP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial lifted their target price on EastGroup Properties from $176.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on EastGroup Properties from $204.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of EastGroup Properties from $172.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of EastGroup Properties from $158.00 to $186.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 22nd. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of EastGroup Properties from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $175.00 to $200.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $191.73.

EastGroup Properties Price Performance

NYSE:EGP traded down $3.12 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $182.15. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 399,060 shares, compared to its average volume of 295,055. EastGroup Properties has a twelve month low of $154.75 and a twelve 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 stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $184.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $175.22. The company has a market capitalization of $8.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.51, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.99.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by ($0.91). EastGroup Properties had a net margin of 37.16% and a return on equity of 8.69%. The company had revenue of $159.09 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.70 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that EastGroup Properties will post 8.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

EastGroup Properties Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were given a $1.40 dividend. This is a boost from EastGroup Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. EastGroup Properties’s dividend payout ratio is 121.48%.

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.