Versor Investments LP Sells 1,703 Shares of EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP)

Versor Investments LP lowered its holdings in shares of EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) by 42.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,342 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,703 shares during the period. Versor Investments LP’s holdings in EastGroup Properties were worth $438,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D raised its stake in EastGroup Properties by 182.5% during the third quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 34,829 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,507,000 after buying an additional 22,500 shares during the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. raised its stake in EastGroup Properties by 50.3% during the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 4,892 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $914,000 after buying an additional 1,638 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc raised its stake in EastGroup Properties by 6.1% during the third quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 13,351 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,494,000 after buying an additional 763 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in EastGroup Properties by 13.8% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 20,448 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,705,000 after buying an additional 2,481 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in EastGroup Properties by 6.4% during the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 203,806 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $38,075,000 after buying an additional 12,234 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on EGP. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of EastGroup Properties from $214.00 to $199.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of EastGroup Properties from $158.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 22nd. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of EastGroup Properties from $204.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of EastGroup Properties from $178.00 to $198.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of EastGroup Properties from $198.00 to $193.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $191.21.

EastGroup Properties Stock Down 2.4 %

Shares of NYSE EGP opened at $171.04 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $180.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $176.29. EastGroup Properties, Inc. has a 1 year low of $155.23 and a 1 year high of $192.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.08.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.10 by ($0.97). EastGroup Properties had a return on equity of 8.56% and a net margin of 37.19%. The firm had revenue of $162.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $161.52 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.95 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that EastGroup Properties, Inc. will post 8.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

EastGroup Properties Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $1.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This is a boost from EastGroup Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.27%. EastGroup Properties’s payout ratio is 115.70%.

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.