Brokerages Set COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) Price Target at $33.43

Shares of COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $33.43.

A number of analysts have issued reports on CDP shares. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on COPT Defense Properties in a report on Monday, March 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $31.00 target price on the stock. Truist Financial raised their price objective on COPT Defense Properties from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On COPT Defense Properties

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in shares of COPT Defense Properties by 813.0% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 6,247,854 shares of the company’s stock valued at $193,371,000 after acquiring an additional 5,563,548 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its position in COPT Defense Properties by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 4,795,639 shares of the company’s stock valued at $148,425,000 after purchasing an additional 89,571 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of COPT Defense Properties by 21.9% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,283,383 shares of the company’s stock valued at $101,621,000 after purchasing an additional 590,051 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of COPT Defense Properties by 12.2% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,099,052 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,916,000 after buying an additional 335,775 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of COPT Defense Properties by 0.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,927,208 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,797,000 after buying an additional 21,388 shares during the last quarter.

COPT Defense Properties Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CDP opened at $27.60 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.47. COPT Defense Properties has a 52 week low of $22.20 and a 52 week high of $34.22. The firm has a market cap of $3.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.44 and a beta of 0.96.

COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.33. COPT Defense Properties had a net margin of 18.44% and a return on equity of 9.07%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that COPT Defense Properties will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

COPT Defense Properties Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.305 per share. This is an increase from COPT Defense Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.22 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.42%. COPT Defense Properties’s dividend payout ratio is currently 99.19%.

About COPT Defense Properties

COPT Defense Properties is a real estate investment trust. It acquires, develops, manages, sells, and leases out office properties and data centers. The firm operates through the following segments: Defense/Information Technology Locations, Regional Office, Wholesale Data Center, and Other. The company was founded on January 22,1988 and is headquartered in Columbia, MD.