Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) Short Interest Update

Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,010,000 shares, a decrease of 14.5% from the August 15th total of 5,860,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 812,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.2 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on HIW. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Highwoods Properties from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Highwoods Properties from $29.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Highwoods Properties from $22.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $27.29.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Evergreen Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Highwoods Properties by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 13,653 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $359,000 after purchasing an additional 371 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in shares of Highwoods Properties by 3.6% in the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 10,766 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $283,000 after acquiring an additional 376 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Highwoods Properties by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 9,274 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $243,000 after acquiring an additional 435 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Highwoods Properties by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,206 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $110,000 after acquiring an additional 440 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina grew its position in Highwoods Properties by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 46,144 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,059,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. 96.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Highwoods Properties Price Performance

Shares of Highwoods Properties stock traded up $0.32 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $33.03. 841,552 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,013,735. The company has a market cap of $3.50 billion, a PE ratio of 27.39 and a beta of 1.26. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $30.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $27.35. Highwoods Properties has a twelve month low of $17.06 and a twelve month high of $33.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by ($0.31). Highwoods Properties had a net margin of 18.30% and a return on equity of 6.33%. The company had revenue of $204.74 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $205.06 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.94 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Highwoods Properties will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Highwoods Properties Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 19th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 19th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.06%. Highwoods Properties’s dividend payout ratio is currently 163.93%.

Highwoods Properties Company Profile

Highwoods Properties, Inc, headquartered in Raleigh, is a publicly-traded (NYSE:HIW), fully-integrated office real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, develops, acquires, leases and manages properties primarily in the best business districts (BBDs) of Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa.