Jennison Associates LLC Buys 302,309 Shares of Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ)

Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) by 15.9% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,205,415 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 302,309 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC’s holdings in Cousins Properties were worth $65,016,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of CUZ. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in Cousins Properties by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 23,534 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $545,000 after buying an additional 501 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC lifted its position in shares of Cousins Properties by 30.8% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,765 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $82,000 after purchasing an additional 651 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp boosted its holdings in Cousins Properties by 5.1% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 15,952 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $369,000 after purchasing an additional 769 shares during the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its position in Cousins Properties by 0.6% in the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 133,620 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,093,000 after purchasing an additional 790 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in Cousins Properties by 130.8% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,514 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 858 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CUZ has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Cousins Properties from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Cousins Properties from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Cousins Properties from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. StockNews.com raised shares of Cousins Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Cousins Properties from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Cousins Properties currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $31.50.

Cousins Properties Price Performance

Shares of Cousins Properties stock opened at $31.10 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 94.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 1.29. Cousins Properties Incorporated has a twelve month low of $19.45 and a twelve month high of $32.44. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.82.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by ($0.60). The business had revenue of $209.21 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $212.54 million. Cousins Properties had a net margin of 6.17% and a return on equity of 1.14%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.65 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Cousins Properties Incorporated will post 2.68 EPS for the current year.

Cousins Properties Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 3rd were given a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 3rd. Cousins Properties’s payout ratio is currently 387.88%.

Insider Activity at Cousins Properties

In related news, CAO Jeffrey D. Symes sold 5,997 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.13, for a total transaction of $168,695.61. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,529 shares in the company, valued at approximately $352,440.77. This trade represents a 32.37 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Cousins Properties

Cousins Properties Incorporated ("Cousins") is a fully integrated, self-administered, and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company, based in Atlanta and acting through its operating partnership, Cousins Properties LP, primarily invests in Class A office buildings located in high-growth Sun Belt markets.