Dean Capital Management Sells 20,465 Shares of Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ)

Dean Capital Management lessened its position in shares of Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) by 49.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,248 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 20,465 shares during the quarter. Dean Capital Management’s holdings in Cousins Properties were worth $517,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CUZ. Invenomic Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Cousins Properties by 13.9% in the 4th quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP now owns 808,096 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $19,677,000 after purchasing an additional 98,333 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in Cousins Properties by 49.2% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,781,184 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $67,722,000 after acquiring an additional 916,508 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Cousins Properties during the 4th quarter worth $1,140,000. HGI Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cousins Properties during the 4th quarter valued at $504,000. Finally, Verition Fund Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cousins Properties by 76.9% in the 4th quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 282,579 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,881,000 after purchasing an additional 122,876 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com raised Cousins Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 23rd. Barclays lowered their price target on Cousins Properties from $29.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cousins Properties presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $23.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Gregg D. Adzema sold 71,097 shares of Cousins Properties stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.31, for a total transaction of $1,657,271.07. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 85,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,001,676.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Cousins Properties Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE:CUZ traded down $0.37 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $22.48. 74,343 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,437,945. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $23.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $23.15. Cousins Properties Incorporated has a 52 week low of $17.40 and a 52 week high of $25.19. The company has a market cap of $3.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.28.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by ($0.54). Cousins Properties had a return on equity of 1.62% and a net margin of 9.15%. The firm had revenue of $209.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $199.35 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.65 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cousins Properties Incorporated will post 2.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cousins Properties Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 4th were issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.69%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 3rd. Cousins Properties’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 261.22%.

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.