Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) Upgraded to “Buy” at Jefferies Financial Group

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) was upgraded by stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Thursday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage presently has a $36.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their prior target price of $33.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price suggests a potential upside of 17.49% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on CUZ. BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Cousins Properties from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $32.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded Cousins Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Cousins Properties from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Barclays boosted their target price on Cousins Properties from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Cousins Properties from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cousins Properties has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $33.50.

Cousins Properties Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CUZ opened at $30.64 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 1.17. Cousins Properties has a 1 year low of $21.58 and a 1 year high of $32.55. The company’s 50-day moving average is $30.91 and its 200 day moving average is $28.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 92.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 1.29.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.67 by ($0.60). The firm 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%. Cousins Properties’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.65 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cousins Properties will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Cousins Properties

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CUZ. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Cousins Properties by 49.7% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,319 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 438 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cousins Properties by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 23,534 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $545,000 after purchasing an additional 501 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cousins Properties by 30.8% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,765 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $82,000 after purchasing an additional 651 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp increased its position in shares of Cousins Properties by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 133,620 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,093,000 after purchasing an additional 790 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System raised its holdings in Cousins Properties by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 42,573 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $986,000 after buying an additional 862 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.38% of the company’s stock.

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.