Crowley Wealth Management Inc. Makes New $29,000 Investment in EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP)

Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 180 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $29,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of EGP. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of EastGroup Properties in the third quarter worth approximately $206,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of EastGroup Properties by 3.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 639,800 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $119,527,000 after purchasing an additional 22,328 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of EastGroup Properties by 35.6% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 13,624 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,545,000 after purchasing an additional 3,574 shares during the period. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd bought a new position in shares of EastGroup Properties in the third quarter worth approximately $228,000. Finally, Vision Capital Corp bought a new position in shares of EastGroup Properties in the third quarter worth approximately $18,308,000. 92.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of EastGroup Properties from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $174.00 to $194.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of EastGroup Properties from $192.00 to $194.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $185.00 target price (up previously from $181.00) on shares of EastGroup Properties in a research report on Monday, March 17th. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of EastGroup Properties in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of EastGroup Properties from $186.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 30th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $190.47.

EastGroup Properties Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of EGP opened at $173.11 on Monday. EastGroup Properties, Inc. has a twelve month low of $155.10 and a twelve month high of $192.61. The company has a market cap of $9.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.23, a P/E/G ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 0.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $175.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.76.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.16 by $0.99. EastGroup Properties had a net margin of 35.57% and a return on equity of 7.89%. As a group, analysts expect that EastGroup Properties, Inc. will post 8.94 EPS for the current year.

EastGroup Properties Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $1.40 dividend. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. EastGroup Properties’s dividend payout ratio is currently 120.43%.

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.