Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the nine research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $33.22.

CUZ has been the topic of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Cousins Properties from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Cousins Properties from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Mizuho raised shares of Cousins Properties from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $22.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Cousins Properties from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Cousins Properties from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th.

Cousins Properties Stock Up 1.5 %

CUZ stock opened at $29.49 on Friday. Cousins Properties has a fifty-two week low of $21.58 and a fifty-two week high of $32.55. The company has a market capitalization of $4.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 1.29. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $30.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.87. 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 (NYSE:CUZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by ($0.60). Cousins Properties had a return on equity of 1.14% and a net margin of 6.17%. The firm had revenue of $209.21 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $212.54 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.65 EPS. Cousins Properties’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Cousins Properties will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cousins Properties Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. Cousins Properties’s payout ratio is currently 387.88%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. USA Financial Formulas bought a new stake in shares of Cousins Properties during the 4th quarter valued at about $296,000. Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Cousins Properties by 17.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 384,983 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $11,796,000 after buying an additional 57,707 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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 buying an additional 309,571 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Cousins Properties by 36.6% during 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 buying an additional 8,479 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in Cousins Properties in the third quarter worth approximately $227,000. 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.