Quest Partners LLC Has $1.32 Million Stake in EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP)

Quest Partners LLC lifted its position in EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) by 3,258.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,053 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 6,843 shares during the quarter. Quest Partners LLC’s holdings in EastGroup Properties were worth $1,318,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Gradient Investments LLC bought a new stake in EastGroup Properties in the second quarter worth approximately $32,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its holdings in EastGroup Properties by 47.7% in the third quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 189 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in EastGroup Properties by 30.2% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 345 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $62,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in EastGroup Properties during the second quarter valued at about $66,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of EastGroup Properties by 10,000.0% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 404 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $69,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on EGP. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on EastGroup Properties from $158.00 to $186.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 22nd. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of EastGroup Properties from $198.00 to $193.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $186.00 price objective on shares of EastGroup Properties in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of EastGroup Properties from $214.00 to $199.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $209.00 price target on shares of EastGroup Properties in a report on Friday, October 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $191.21.

EastGroup Properties Stock Performance

EGP opened at $174.10 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $8.62 billion, a PE ratio of 35.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.00. EastGroup Properties, Inc. has a 1 year low of $155.23 and a 1 year high of $192.61. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $180.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.10 by ($0.97). The business had revenue of $162.88 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $161.52 million. EastGroup Properties had a net margin of 37.19% and a return on equity of 8.56%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.95 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that EastGroup Properties, Inc. will post 8.36 EPS for the current year.

EastGroup Properties Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $1.40 per share. This is a boost from EastGroup Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.22%. EastGroup Properties’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 115.70%.

EastGroup Properties Profile

EastGroup Properties, Inc (NYSE: EGP), a member of the S&P Mid-Cap 400 and Russell 1000 Indexes, is a self-administered equity real estate investment trust focused on the development, acquisition and operation of industrial properties in major Sunbelt markets throughout the United States with an emphasis in the states of Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and North Carolina.