Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) Share Price Passes Above Two Hundred Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

Shares of Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) passed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Wednesday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $28.40 and traded as high as $30.72. Cousins Properties shares last traded at $30.64, with a volume of 1,332,022 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on CUZ shares. Barclays boosted their price target on Cousins Properties from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Cousins Properties from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $33.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Cousins Properties from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Cousins Properties from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $32.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com raised Cousins Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $33.50.

Cousins Properties Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $4.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 92.58, a PEG ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $30.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.42. The company has a quick ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.67 by ($0.60). The firm had revenue of $209.21 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $212.54 million. Cousins Properties had a return on equity of 1.14% and a net margin of 6.17%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.65 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cousins Properties Incorporated will post 2.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cousins Properties Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.19%. Cousins Properties’s payout ratio is currently 387.88%.

Institutional Trading of Cousins Properties

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Cousins Properties by 21.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,749,662 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $51,580,000 after buying an additional 309,571 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cousins Properties by 36.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 31,660 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,004,000 after acquiring an additional 8,479 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Cousins Properties in the 3rd quarter valued at about $227,000. TCW Group Inc. acquired a new position in Cousins Properties during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,274,000. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Cousins Properties in the 3rd quarter worth about $208,000. 94.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Cousins Properties

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.