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

Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, September 17th, NASDAQ reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.32 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 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 payout ratio of 581.8% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect Cousins Properties to earn $2.71 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 47.2%.

Cousins Properties Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CUZ opened at $29.33 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. Cousins Properties has a fifty-two week low of $17.40 and a fifty-two week high of $30.50. The stock has a market cap of $4.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.85, a PEG ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 1.31.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.61). Cousins Properties had a return on equity of 1.31% and a net margin of 7.25%. The company had revenue of $212.98 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $208.18 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.75 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cousins Properties will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CUZ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Cousins Properties from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Cousins Properties from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Cousins Properties from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Cousins Properties from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Cousins Properties from $26.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $28.29.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Jeffrey D. Symes sold 5,997 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.13, for a total value of $168,695.61. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,529 shares in the company, valued at $352,440.77. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.