EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) Plans $1.40 Quarterly Dividend

EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 2nd,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 1.40 per share by the real estate investment trust on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.29%.

EastGroup Properties has increased its dividend by an average of 27.7% annually over the last three years. EastGroup Properties has a dividend payout ratio of 116.2% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect EastGroup Properties to earn $8.98 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 62.4%.

EastGroup Properties Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE EGP traded down $0.60 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $170.09. The company had a trading volume of 21,410 shares, compared to its average volume of 301,151. The stock has a market cap of $8.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.99. EastGroup Properties has a 52 week low of $155.23 and a 52 week high of $192.61. The business’s 50-day moving average is $177.48 and its 200-day moving average is $177.37. The company has a current ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.10 by ($0.97). The company had revenue of $162.88 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $161.52 million. EastGroup Properties had a return on equity of 8.56% and a net margin of 37.19%. EastGroup Properties’s revenue was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.95 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that EastGroup Properties will post 8.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EGP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $209.00 price target on shares of EastGroup Properties in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of EastGroup Properties from $158.00 to $186.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of EastGroup Properties from $204.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. StockNews.com lowered shares of EastGroup Properties from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their target price on EastGroup Properties from $190.00 to $186.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $191.21.

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.