New York State Teachers Retirement System Reduces Position in Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW)

New York State Teachers Retirement System trimmed its position in Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) by 11.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 150,082 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 19,500 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Highwoods Properties were worth $5,029,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HIW. PGGM Investments increased its position in shares of Highwoods Properties by 77.9% in the second quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 3,629,485 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $95,347,000 after acquiring an additional 1,589,730 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Highwoods Properties by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,531,611 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $40,233,000 after purchasing an additional 36,285 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Highwoods Properties by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,227,656 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $32,251,000 after purchasing an additional 56,399 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in Highwoods Properties by 86.8% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,172,929 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $30,813,000 after buying an additional 545,066 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its position in shares of Highwoods Properties by 11.0% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 957,610 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $25,070,000 after buying an additional 94,804 shares during the last quarter. 96.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Highwoods Properties from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $31.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Highwoods Properties from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Highwoods Properties from $29.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Highwoods Properties from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.33.

Highwoods Properties Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE:HIW opened at $33.27 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.83 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a current ratio of 1.31 and a quick ratio of 1.31. Highwoods Properties, Inc. has a one year low of $17.17 and a one year high of $36.78. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $33.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.52.

Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.88 by ($0.74). The company had revenue of $204.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $204.96 million. Highwoods Properties had a return on equity of 6.05% and a net margin of 17.40%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.93 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Highwoods Properties, Inc. will post 3.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Highwoods Properties Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. Highwoods Properties’s dividend payout ratio is presently 149.25%.

About Highwoods Properties

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.