Sage Investment Counsel LLC Takes $431,000 Position in Healthcare Realty Trust Incorporated (NYSE:HR)

Sage Investment Counsel LLC bought a new stake in Healthcare Realty Trust Incorporated (NYSE:HR) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 25,445 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $431,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Healthcare Realty Trust by 31.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 469,323 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $7,955,000 after acquiring an additional 111,125 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Healthcare Realty Trust by 106.4% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 77,545 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,407,000 after acquiring an additional 39,975 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Healthcare Realty Trust in the third quarter valued at about $849,000. Stifel Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Healthcare Realty Trust by 13.4% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 84,728 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,538,000 after acquiring an additional 10,044 shares during the period. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Healthcare Realty Trust in the fourth quarter valued at about $399,000.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Peter F. Sr Lyle, Sr. acquired 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $17.21 per share, with a total value of $172,100.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 26,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $457,372.96. This represents a 60.33 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.56% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Healthcare Realty Trust Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE HR opened at $17.11 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $6.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.61 and a beta of 0.94. Healthcare Realty Trust Incorporated has a 12 month low of $12.77 and a 12 month high of $18.90. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $16.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $17.37.

Healthcare Realty Trust (NYSE:HR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $309.77 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $303.81 million. Healthcare Realty Trust had a negative return on equity of 11.20% and a negative net margin of 51.60%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.39 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Healthcare Realty Trust Incorporated will post 1.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Healthcare Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Healthcare Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently -69.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $16.00 price target on shares of Healthcare Realty Trust in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on Healthcare Realty Trust from $18.00 to $17.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Healthcare Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $19.00 to $17.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com raised Healthcare Realty Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Healthcare Realty Trust from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $19.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, December 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.20.

Healthcare Realty Trust Profile

Healthcare Realty Trust, Inc provides real estate investment services. It owns, leases, manages, acquires, finances, develops, and redevelops income-producing real estate properties associated primarily with the delivery of outpatient healthcare services throughout the United States of America. The company was founded by David R.