Boston Properties, Inc. (NYSE:BXP) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Boston Properties, Inc. (NYSE:BXP) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the thirteen research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $81.69.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Compass Point upgraded shares of Boston Properties from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $80.00 to $88.00 in a report on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com downgraded Boston Properties from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $85.00 target price on shares of Boston Properties in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Boston Properties from $64.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Wedbush cut Boston Properties from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $81.00 to $70.00 in a report on Thursday.

Institutional Trading of Boston Properties

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. HB Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Boston Properties during the second quarter worth $259,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of Boston Properties by 115.5% in the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 709 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 380 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Boston Properties by 17.8% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 587,302 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $36,154,000 after purchasing an additional 88,569 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its position in shares of Boston Properties by 68.5% during the second quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 154,095 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $9,486,000 after purchasing an additional 62,621 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC boosted its holdings in Boston Properties by 2.6% during the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 6,597 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $406,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. 98.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Boston Properties Stock Performance

NYSE BXP opened at $74.91 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.43, a PEG ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a quick ratio of 5.51, a current ratio of 5.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.01. Boston Properties has a twelve month low of $56.46 and a twelve month high of $90.11. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $79.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $75.33.

Boston Properties (NYSE:BXP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.81 by ($1.28). The company had revenue of $859.23 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $829.91 million. Boston Properties had a net margin of 10.75% and a return on equity of 4.40%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.86 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Boston Properties will post 7.1 EPS for the current year.

Boston Properties Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Boston Properties’s dividend payout ratio is currently 169.70%.

Boston Properties Company Profile

Boston Properties, Inc (NYSE: BXP) (BXP or the Company) is the largest publicly traded developer, owner, and manager of premier workplaces in the United States, concentrated in six dynamic gateway markets – Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC. BXP has delivered places that power progress for our clients and communities for more than 50 years.