Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Sells 32,160 Shares of Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board lowered its position in shares of Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) by 53.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,666 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 32,160 shares during the quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board’s holdings in Highwoods Properties were worth $724,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of HIW. PGGM Investments purchased a new position in Highwoods Properties in the fourth quarter worth about $46,833,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Highwoods Properties by 42.0% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,614,624 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $105,952,000 after acquiring an additional 1,364,176 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Highwoods Properties by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,371,014 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $358,017,000 after acquiring an additional 1,139,688 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Highwoods Properties in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $24,306,000. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its stake in Highwoods Properties by 402.4% during the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 485,191 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $11,140,000 after purchasing an additional 388,617 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HIW has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Highwoods Properties from $18.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Highwoods Properties from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $24.75.

Highwoods Properties Stock Performance

Shares of HIW stock traded up $0.40 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $28.15. 755,560 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,085,963. Highwoods Properties, Inc. has a 12 month low of $17.06 and a 12 month high of $29.58. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $26.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $24.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.98 billion, a PE ratio of 22.96 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.34.

Highwoods Properties Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 19th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.10%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 19th. Highwoods Properties’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 163.93%.

Highwoods Properties Profile

Highwoods Properties, Inc, headquartered in Raleigh, is a publicly-traded (NYSE:HIW), fully-integrated office real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, develops, acquires, leases and manages properties primarily in the best business districts (BBDs) of Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa.