Analysts Set Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) Price Target at $32.89

Shares of Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nine ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $32.89.

CUZ has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lowered Cousins Properties from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $31.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Mizuho upgraded Cousins Properties from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $22.00 to $30.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com raised Cousins Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. KeyCorp upgraded Cousins Properties from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $34.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Cousins Properties from $34.00 to $33.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th.

Cousins Properties Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of Cousins Properties stock opened at $29.51 on Wednesday. Cousins Properties has a 12-month low of $21.58 and a 12-month high of $32.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.96 billion, a PE ratio of 98.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $29.95 and its 200-day moving average is $30.23.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.62. Cousins Properties had a net margin of 5.36% and a return on equity of 1.00%. Equities analysts anticipate that Cousins Properties will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Cousins Properties Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cousins Properties’s dividend payout ratio is 426.67%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Resolution Capital Ltd acquired a new position in Cousins Properties in the fourth quarter valued at about $135,094,000. GRS Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Cousins Properties in the fourth quarter worth $63,759,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Cousins Properties during the fourth quarter worth $57,194,000. Rush Island Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Cousins Properties in the third quarter valued at $46,393,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cousins Properties by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 13,491,300 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $413,375,000 after buying an additional 1,350,352 shares during the last quarter. 94.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.