Bank of Montreal Can Lowers Holdings in EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP)

Bank of Montreal Can decreased its holdings in EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,669 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 682 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can’s holdings in EastGroup Properties were worth $1,987,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co lifted its stake in EastGroup Properties by 5.9% in the first quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 95,952 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $17,242,000 after acquiring an additional 5,342 shares during the last quarter. Pinebridge Investments L.P. purchased a new position in EastGroup Properties in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,289,000. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in EastGroup Properties by 30.4% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 18,316 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,293,000 after acquiring an additional 4,271 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc lifted its stake in EastGroup Properties by 48.9% in the first quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 11,389 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,047,000 after acquiring an additional 3,740 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its stake in EastGroup Properties by 30.1% in the second quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 280,759 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $47,757,000 after acquiring an additional 64,984 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on EGP. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of EastGroup Properties from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $179.00 to $214.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of EastGroup Properties from $178.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of EastGroup Properties from $158.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 22nd. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of EastGroup Properties from $176.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Mizuho raised shares of EastGroup Properties from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $175.00 to $200.00 in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $192.00.

EastGroup Properties Stock Performance

NYSE:EGP opened at $179.99 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $185.40 and its 200 day moving average price is $175.18. EastGroup Properties, Inc. has a 1-year low of $154.75 and a 1-year high of $192.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.21 and a quick ratio of 0.21. The firm has a market cap of $8.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.99.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by ($0.91). EastGroup Properties had a net margin of 37.16% and a return on equity of 8.69%. The firm had revenue of $159.09 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $156.70 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that EastGroup Properties, Inc. will post 8.32 EPS for the current year.

EastGroup Properties Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a $1.40 dividend. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.11%. This is a positive change from EastGroup Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. EastGroup Properties’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 121.48%.

About EastGroup Properties

EastGroup Properties, Inc (NYSE: EGP), a member of the S&P Mid-Cap 400 and Russell 1000 Indexes, is a self-administered equity real estate investment trust focused on the development, acquisition and operation of industrial properties in major Sunbelt markets throughout the United States with an emphasis in the states of Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and North Carolina.