Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $33.00.

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Cousins Properties from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Cousins Properties from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $33.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Mizuho upgraded Cousins Properties from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $22.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded Cousins Properties from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, KeyCorp raised Cousins Properties from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $34.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cousins Properties

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Cousins Properties by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,802,104 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $759,936,000 after acquiring an additional 985,934 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Cousins Properties by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 13,491,300 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $413,375,000 after purchasing an additional 1,350,352 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. raised its holdings in Cousins Properties by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. now owns 7,853,306 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $240,625,000 after purchasing an additional 19,657 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Cousins Properties by 0.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,606,870 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $224,251,000 after purchasing an additional 48,668 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Centersquare Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cousins Properties by 11.7% in the 4th quarter. Centersquare Investment Management LLC now owns 5,600,905 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $171,612,000 after buying an additional 585,659 shares during the period. 94.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cousins Properties Stock Up 1.8 %

NYSE CUZ opened at $29.80 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $30.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $30.09. Cousins Properties has a one year low of $21.58 and a one year high of $32.55. The firm has a market cap of $5.00 billion, a PE ratio of 99.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.62. Cousins Properties had a return on equity of 1.00% and a net margin of 5.36%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cousins Properties will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cousins Properties Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. Cousins Properties’s payout ratio is 426.67%.

Cousins Properties Company Profile

Cousins Properties Incorporated ("Cousins") is a fully integrated, self-administered, and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company, based in Atlanta and acting through its operating partnership, Cousins Properties LP, primarily invests in Class A office buildings located in high-growth Sun Belt markets.