Westpac Banking Corp Increases Stake in COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP)

Westpac Banking Corp boosted its stake in shares of COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) by 34.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 27,782 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,174 shares during the quarter. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in COPT Defense Properties were worth $860,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CDP. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in COPT Defense Properties by 813.0% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 6,247,854 shares of the company’s stock valued at $193,371,000 after purchasing an additional 5,563,548 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of COPT Defense Properties during the fourth quarter worth about $45,718,000. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC boosted its position in COPT Defense Properties by 192.9% in the fourth quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC now owns 1,158,207 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,847,000 after buying an additional 762,840 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in COPT Defense Properties by 61.2% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,906,341 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,001,000 after buying an additional 723,486 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in COPT Defense Properties by 35.8% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,693,332 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,689,000 after buying an additional 710,491 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of COPT Defense Properties in a report on Monday, March 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $31.00 price objective on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $33.43.

COPT Defense Properties Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of CDP stock opened at $26.13 on Friday. COPT Defense Properties has a twelve month low of $22.20 and a twelve month high of $34.22. The stock has a market cap of $2.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.24 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $27.56 and a 200 day moving average of $29.98. The company has a current ratio of 2.47, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56.

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

COPT Defense Properties Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.305 per share. This is a positive change from COPT Defense Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.22 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.67%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. COPT Defense Properties’s dividend payout ratio is presently 99.19%.

COPT Defense Properties Profile

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.