Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) Raised to “Buy” at Jefferies Financial Group

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) was upgraded by equities researchers at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has a $36.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their previous target price of $33.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price points to a potential upside of 17.84% from the stock’s current price.

CUZ has been the subject of a number of other research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Cousins Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Cousins Properties from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays raised their target price on Cousins Properties from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Cousins Properties from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Cousins Properties from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $33.50.

Cousins Properties Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CUZ opened at $30.55 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $30.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.17. Cousins Properties has a 52 week low of $21.58 and a 52 week high of $32.55. The firm has a market cap of $4.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 92.58, a P/E/G ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 1.29.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.67 by ($0.60). Cousins Properties had a net margin of 6.17% and a return on equity of 1.14%. The company had revenue of $209.21 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $212.54 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.65 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cousins Properties will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Cousins Properties

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CUZ. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Cousins Properties by 21.5% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,749,662 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $51,580,000 after purchasing an additional 309,571 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its position in Cousins Properties by 36.6% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 31,660 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,004,000 after acquiring an additional 8,479 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in Cousins Properties during the third quarter worth $227,000. TCW Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cousins Properties during the third quarter valued at $1,274,000. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cousins Properties in the 3rd quarter valued at $208,000. Institutional investors own 94.38% of the company’s stock.

About Cousins Properties

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.