Cousins Properties Incorporated (CUZ) To Go Ex-Dividend on January 3rd

Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, December 18th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.32 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, January 14th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.29%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd.

Cousins Properties has decreased its dividend by an average of 4.9% per year over the last three years. Cousins Properties has a payout ratio of 441.4% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect Cousins Properties to earn $2.72 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.28 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.1%.

Cousins Properties Stock Performance

CUZ stock opened at $29.83 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The firm has a market cap of $4.72 billion, a PE ratio of 90.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 1.29. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $31.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $27.89. Cousins Properties has a 1-year low of $21.58 and a 1-year high of $32.55.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by ($0.60). Cousins Properties had a net margin of 6.17% and a return on equity of 1.14%. The company had revenue of $209.21 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $212.54 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.65 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cousins Properties will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CUZ shares. KeyCorp raised shares of Cousins Properties from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $34.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Cousins Properties from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $31.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Cousins Properties from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Cousins Properties from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Cousins Properties from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cousins Properties currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $33.14.

Cousins Properties Company Profile

Cousins Properties Incorporated ("Cousins") is a fully integrated, self-administered, and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company, based in Atlanta and acting through its operating partnership, Cousins Properties LP, primarily invests in Class A office buildings located in high-growth Sun Belt markets.