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

EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, August 23rd, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of 1.40 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.98%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This is an increase from EastGroup Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27.

EastGroup Properties has increased its dividend payment by an average of 27.7% per year over the last three years. EastGroup Properties has a dividend payout ratio of 110.7% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect EastGroup Properties to earn $8.99 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 62.3%.

EastGroup Properties Price Performance

Shares of EastGroup Properties stock opened at $187.68 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.99. EastGroup Properties has a twelve month low of $154.75 and a twelve month high of $192.61. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $185.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $175.04.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by ($0.91). The business had revenue of $159.09 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.70 million. EastGroup Properties had a net margin of 37.16% and a return on equity of 8.69%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that EastGroup Properties will post 8.32 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on EastGroup Properties in a research report on Tuesday, June 4th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $167.00 price target on the stock. 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 report on Thursday, August 22nd. Mizuho raised shares of EastGroup Properties from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $175.00 to $200.00 in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of EastGroup Properties from $208.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of EastGroup Properties from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $179.00 to $214.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $192.00.

EastGroup Properties Company Profile

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.