EastGroup Properties, Inc. (EGP) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $1.40 on January 15th

EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 2nd,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 1.40 per share by the real estate investment trust on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.47%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st.

EastGroup Properties has increased its dividend by an average of 27.7% per year over the last three years. EastGroup Properties has a payout ratio of 116.7% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect EastGroup Properties to earn $8.98 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 62.4%.

EastGroup Properties Stock Performance

NYSE:EGP opened at $161.32 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $7.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.99. EastGroup Properties has a twelve month low of $155.23 and a twelve month high of $192.61. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $171.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $177.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.10 by ($0.97). The business had revenue of $162.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $161.52 million. EastGroup Properties had a return on equity of 8.56% and a net margin of 37.19%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.95 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that EastGroup Properties will post 8.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on EGP shares. Evercore ISI upped their target price on EastGroup Properties from $204.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of EastGroup Properties from $198.00 to $193.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $186.00 target price on shares of EastGroup Properties in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on shares of EastGroup Properties from $190.00 to $186.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of EastGroup Properties from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $175.00 to $200.00 in a report on Thursday, September 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $191.80.

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.