Short Interest in Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE) Expands By 60.7%

Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE) saw a large growth in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,900,000 shares, a growth of 60.7% from the February 28th total of 3,050,000 shares. Currently, 4.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 872,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.6 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Urban Edge Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of Urban Edge Properties from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 24th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Urban Edge Properties

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in UE. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Urban Edge Properties by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,962,196 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $429,187,000 after purchasing an additional 213,478 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Urban Edge Properties by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,747,456 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $317,070,000 after buying an additional 835,885 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in Urban Edge Properties by 2.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,990,363 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $149,524,000 after buying an additional 177,745 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Urban Edge Properties by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,191,932 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $68,640,000 after buying an additional 82,324 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in Urban Edge Properties by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,169,598 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $68,146,000 after buying an additional 203,569 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Urban Edge Properties Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE UE traded up $0.01 on Friday, reaching $18.88. 529,300 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 877,245. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $19.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $21.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.00 and a beta of 1.54. Urban Edge Properties has a fifty-two week low of $15.81 and a fifty-two week high of $23.85.

Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.25. Urban Edge Properties had a net margin of 16.31% and a return on equity of 5.59%. Analysts forecast that Urban Edge Properties will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Urban Edge Properties Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.19 dividend. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.03%. This is a positive change from Urban Edge Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Urban Edge Properties’s dividend payout ratio is presently 128.81%.

About Urban Edge Properties

Urban Edge Properties is a NYSE listed real estate investment trust focused on owning, managing, acquiring, developing, and redeveloping retail real estate in urban communities, primarily in the Washington, DC to Boston corridor. Urban Edge owns 76 properties totaling 17.1 million square feet of gross leasable area.