Barclays PLC Purchases 409,258 Shares of Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW)

Barclays PLC lifted its position in shares of Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) by 537.7% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 485,368 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 409,258 shares during the period. Barclays PLC’s holdings in Highwoods Properties were worth $16,264,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in HIW. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Highwoods Properties by 131.0% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,708,996 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $90,778,000 after buying an additional 1,536,067 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in Highwoods Properties by 472.5% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 885,541 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $29,674,000 after acquiring an additional 730,859 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management boosted its stake in Highwoods Properties by 109.5% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 552,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $14,501,000 after acquiring an additional 288,500 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. grew its holdings in Highwoods Properties by 436.3% in the third quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 215,724 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,229,000 after purchasing an additional 175,499 shares during the period. Finally, M&G PLC increased its stake in shares of Highwoods Properties by 26.8% during the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 631,159 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $21,459,000 after purchasing an additional 133,575 shares in the last quarter. 96.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Highwoods Properties from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Highwoods Properties from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Highwoods Properties from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the company from $31.00 to $35.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Highwoods Properties presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.20.

Highwoods Properties Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HIW opened at $31.07 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.19 and a beta of 1.24. Highwoods Properties, Inc. has a twelve month low of $21.37 and a twelve month high of $36.78. The company has a quick ratio of 1.31, a current ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41. The company has a 50 day moving average of $33.01 and a 200 day moving average of $30.68.

Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.88 by ($0.74). The business had revenue of $204.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $204.96 million. Highwoods Properties had a return on equity of 6.05% and a net margin of 17.40%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.93 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Highwoods Properties, Inc. will post 3.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Highwoods Properties Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. Highwoods Properties’s dividend payout ratio is currently 149.25%.

About Highwoods Properties

Highwoods Properties, Inc, headquartered in Raleigh, is a publicly-traded (NYSE:HIW), fully-integrated office real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, develops, acquires, leases and manages properties primarily in the best business districts (BBDs) of Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa.