Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) Short Interest Down 13.7% in December

Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,270,000 shares, a drop of 13.7% from the December 15th total of 3,790,000 shares. Currently, 2.1% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 718,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.6 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on PSA shares. Barclays decreased their price target on Public Storage from $380.00 to $361.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Public Storage from $375.00 to $365.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Public Storage from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price target for the company from $298.00 to $299.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Public Storage from $343.00 to $338.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Public Storage from $360.00 to $422.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $344.54.

Public Storage Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of PSA traded up $7.30 on Thursday, reaching $297.79. The stock had a trading volume of 388,588 shares, compared to its average volume of 689,069. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 0.97. Public Storage has a 12-month low of $256.31 and a 12-month high of $369.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $52.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.65 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $318.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $325.45.

Public Storage Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $3.00 per share. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.03%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Public Storage’s dividend payout ratio is currently 124.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Nathaniel A. Vitan sold 450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.99, for a total transaction of $143,095.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 2,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $751,728.36. This trade represents a 15.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 11.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Public Storage

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp lifted its position in Public Storage by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,370,658 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,773,571,000 after acquiring an additional 55,123 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Public Storage by 20.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,025,869 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,828,763,000 after purchasing an additional 869,066 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Public Storage by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,931,572 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,425,941,000 after purchasing an additional 52,807 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Public Storage by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,813,136 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,023,080,000 after purchasing an additional 54,992 shares in the last quarter. Finally, APG Asset Management US Inc. grew its stake in shares of Public Storage by 4.8% in the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. now owns 2,202,117 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $623,485,000 after buying an additional 100,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.79% of the company’s stock.

About Public Storage

Public Storage, a member of the S&P 500 and FT Global 500, is a REIT that primarily acquires, develops, owns, and operates self-storage facilities. At December 31, 2023, we had: (i) interests in 3,044 self-storage facilities located in 40 states with approximately 218 million net rentable square feet in the United States and (ii) a 35% common equity interest in Shurgard Self Storage Limited (Euronext Brussels: SHUR), which owned 275 self-storage facilities located in seven Western European nations with approximately 15 million net rentable square feet operated under the Shurgard brand.