Cousins Properties Incorporated Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.32 (NYSE:CUZ)

Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, December 18th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.32 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, January 14th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.29%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd.

Cousins Properties has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 4.9% per year over the last three years. Cousins Properties has a dividend payout ratio of 441.4% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities analysts expect Cousins Properties to earn $2.72 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.28 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.1%.

Cousins Properties Price Performance

CUZ opened at $29.83 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The company has a market cap of $4.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 90.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 1.29. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $31.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.89. Cousins Properties has a 12-month low of $21.58 and a 12-month high of $32.55.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by ($0.60). The company had revenue of $209.21 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $212.54 million. Cousins Properties had a return on equity of 1.14% and a net margin of 6.17%. The company’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.65 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Cousins Properties will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CUZ. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cousins Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Cousins Properties from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Barclays lifted their target price on Cousins Properties from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Cousins Properties from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded shares of Cousins Properties from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $34.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Cousins Properties currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $33.14.

Cousins Properties Company Profile

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.