COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $33.43.

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of COPT Defense Properties in a report on Monday, March 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $31.00 price target for the company. Truist Financial boosted their target price on COPT Defense Properties from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th.

Institutional Trading of COPT Defense Properties

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in shares of COPT Defense Properties by 32.5% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 55,516 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,684,000 after buying an additional 13,606 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its stake in COPT Defense Properties by 82.3% during the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 38,874 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,179,000 after purchasing an additional 17,553 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in COPT Defense Properties by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,763,277 shares of the company’s stock valued at $83,810,000 after purchasing an additional 49,300 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of COPT Defense Properties by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 376,938 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,666,000 after purchasing an additional 18,278 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its position in shares of COPT Defense Properties by 33.4% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 5,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $157,000 after buying an additional 1,271 shares during the last quarter.

COPT Defense Properties Price Performance

Shares of CDP opened at $27.26 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $3.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.16 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 2.47 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $27.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.07. COPT Defense Properties has a 12 month low of $22.20 and a 12 month high of $34.22.

COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.33. COPT Defense Properties had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 18.44%. On average, research analysts forecast that COPT Defense Properties will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current year.

COPT Defense Properties Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.305 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This is a positive change from COPT Defense Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.48%. COPT Defense Properties’s payout ratio is presently 99.19%.

About COPT Defense Properties

COPT Defense Properties is a real estate investment trust. It acquires, develops, manages, sells, and leases out office properties and data centers. The firm operates through the following segments: Defense/Information Technology Locations, Regional Office, Wholesale Data Center, and Other. The company was founded on January 22,1988 and is headquartered in Columbia, MD.