EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) to Issue $1.40 Quarterly Dividend

EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 2nd,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of 1.40 per share by the real estate investment trust on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st.

EastGroup Properties has increased its dividend payment by an average of 27.7% annually over the last three years. EastGroup Properties has a payout ratio of 116.2% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect EastGroup Properties to earn $8.98 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 62.4%.

EastGroup Properties Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE EGP opened at $169.78 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a current ratio of 0.08. The company has a market cap of $8.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.99. EastGroup Properties has a 52-week low of $155.23 and a 52-week high of $192.61. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $177.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $177.40.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.10 by ($0.97). EastGroup Properties had a net margin of 37.19% and a return on equity of 8.56%. The business had revenue of $162.88 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $161.52 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.95 EPS. EastGroup Properties’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that EastGroup Properties will post 8.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on EGP. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $186.00 price target on shares of EastGroup Properties in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on EastGroup Properties from $158.00 to $186.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 22nd. Evercore ISI raised their price target on EastGroup Properties from $204.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. StockNews.com cut EastGroup Properties from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on EastGroup Properties from $214.00 to $199.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $191.21.

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.