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

EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, March 7th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of 1.40 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.04%.

EastGroup Properties has increased its dividend by an average of 15.3% per year over the last three years. EastGroup Properties has a payout ratio of 102.6% 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 $9.73 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 57.6%.

EastGroup Properties Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE EGP traded down $1.04 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $184.51. 562,513 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 321,343. The stock has a market cap of $9.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.68, a PEG ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.99. EastGroup Properties has a 1 year low of $155.10 and a 1 year high of $192.61. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $171.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $175.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 0.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.16 by $0.99. EastGroup Properties had a return on equity of 7.89% and a net margin of 35.57%. On average, research analysts forecast that EastGroup Properties will post 8.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on EastGroup Properties from $192.00 to $194.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of EastGroup Properties from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Raymond James upgraded EastGroup Properties from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $185.00 to $200.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on EastGroup Properties in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $180.00 price target for the company. Finally, StockNews.com raised EastGroup Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $191.65.

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.