EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) Shares Bought by Pictet Asset Management Holding SA

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its holdings in shares of EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 15,551 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA’s holdings in EastGroup Properties were worth $2,496,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in EastGroup Properties in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $116,756,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of EastGroup Properties in the 4th quarter valued at $100,579,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of EastGroup Properties by 210.6% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 707,732 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $113,584,000 after buying an additional 479,873 shares during the period. Boston Partners increased its holdings in shares of EastGroup Properties by 34.1% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,056,232 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $169,533,000 after buying an additional 268,359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its position in shares of EastGroup Properties by 50.9% in the 4th quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 517,770 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $83,098,000 after buying an additional 174,630 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on EGP. StockNews.com downgraded EastGroup Properties from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 31st. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on EastGroup Properties from $192.00 to $194.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of EastGroup Properties in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Truist Financial upped their price target on EastGroup Properties from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of EastGroup Properties from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $174.00 to $194.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $190.47.

EastGroup Properties Stock Down 3.1 %

EastGroup Properties stock opened at $160.59 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.54, a P/E/G ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $177.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $174.05. EastGroup Properties, Inc. has a one year low of $155.10 and a one year high of $192.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.12 and a current ratio of 0.12.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.15 EPS 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, equities analysts expect that EastGroup Properties, Inc. will post 8.94 earnings per share for the current year.

EastGroup Properties Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $1.40 per share. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.49%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. EastGroup Properties’s payout ratio is currently 120.43%.

EastGroup Properties 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.