Natixis Advisors LLC Decreases Holdings in STAG Industrial, Inc. (NYSE:STAG)

Natixis Advisors LLC reduced its stake in STAG Industrial, Inc. (NYSE:STAG) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 351,671 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 6,630 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in STAG Industrial were worth $11,893,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in STAG. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund raised its position in STAG Industrial by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 37,131 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,256,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Values First Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of STAG Industrial by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Values First Advisors Inc. now owns 14,562 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $492,000 after purchasing an additional 307 shares during the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of STAG Industrial by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 12,025 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $407,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares during the period. Peak Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in STAG Industrial by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Peak Financial Advisors LLC now owns 12,415 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $420,000 after purchasing an additional 356 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hilltop National Bank grew its holdings in STAG Industrial by 19.2% during the fourth quarter. Hilltop National Bank now owns 2,243 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.67% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on STAG. Raymond James boosted their target price on STAG Industrial from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on STAG Industrial from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of STAG Industrial from $40.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $40.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Benjamin S. Butcher sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.10, for a total value of $1,755,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,632 shares in the company, valued at approximately $338,083.20. This represents a 83.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

STAG Industrial Stock Performance

Shares of STAG opened at $35.44 on Thursday. STAG Industrial, Inc. has a 52-week low of $32.27 and a 52-week high of $41.63. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $34.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.07 and a beta of 1.05.

STAG Industrial (NYSE:STAG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.43. STAG Industrial had a net margin of 24.64% and a return on equity of 5.51%. Research analysts forecast that STAG Industrial, Inc. will post 2.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

STAG Industrial Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.1242 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a dividend yield of 4.25%. This is a boost from STAG Industrial’s previous dividend of $0.12. STAG Industrial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 143.27%.

STAG Industrial Profile

STAG Industrial, Inc is a real estate investment company, which engages in acquiring, owning, and managing single-tenant, industrial real estate assets. It offers industrial real estate operating platform to real estate ownership. The company was founded by Benjamin S. Butcher on July 21, 2010 and is headquartered in Boston, MA.