EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) Short Interest Up 5.1% in November

EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 1,840,000 shares, a growth of 5.1% from the November 15th total of 1,750,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 347,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.3 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EastGroup Properties

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of EGP. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its position in EastGroup Properties by 3.5% during the second quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 4,072 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $693,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in EastGroup Properties by 6,133.3% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 935 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $168,000 after purchasing an additional 920 shares in the last quarter. Gradient Investments LLC purchased a new position in EastGroup Properties during the second quarter worth approximately $32,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in EastGroup Properties by 5.8% during the second quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,481 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $592,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of EastGroup Properties by 0.3% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 31,093 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,328,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EGP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $209.00 price objective on shares of EastGroup Properties in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Raymond James upgraded EastGroup Properties from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $185.00 to $200.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of EastGroup Properties in a research note on Tuesday. Mizuho upgraded EastGroup Properties from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $175.00 to $200.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, StockNews.com cut EastGroup Properties from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, EastGroup Properties presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $191.80.

EastGroup Properties Stock Performance

Shares of EGP stock traded down $1.98 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $167.72. The stock had a trading volume of 246,456 shares, compared to its average volume of 301,988. The business’s fifty day moving average is $174.07 and its 200-day moving average is $177.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The firm has a market cap of $8.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.65, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.99. EastGroup Properties has a 1-year low of $155.23 and a 1-year high of $192.61.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last posted its earnings results 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). The company had revenue of $162.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $161.52 million. EastGroup Properties had a return on equity of 8.56% and a net margin of 37.19%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.95 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that EastGroup Properties will post 8.36 earnings per share for the current year.

EastGroup Properties Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $1.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.34%. EastGroup Properties’s dividend payout ratio is currently 115.70%.

About EastGroup Properties

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.