Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) Short Interest Update

Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) saw a large drop in short interest in July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,620,000 shares, a drop of 15.1% from the July 15th total of 5,440,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 845,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.5 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Highwoods Properties

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Evergreen Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Highwoods Properties by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 13,653 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $359,000 after buying an additional 371 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in shares of Highwoods Properties by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 10,766 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $283,000 after buying an additional 376 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its stake in Highwoods Properties by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 9,274 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $243,000 after acquiring an additional 435 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Highwoods Properties by 11.7% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,206 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $110,000 after acquiring an additional 440 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its stake in Highwoods Properties by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 46,144 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,059,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on HIW. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Highwoods Properties from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Highwoods Properties from $29.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Highwoods Properties from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $25.86.

Highwoods Properties Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:HIW traded down $0.26 on Friday, reaching $31.70. The company had a trading volume of 589,942 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,076,284. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.36 billion, a PE ratio of 25.98 and a beta of 1.26. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $28.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.03. Highwoods Properties has a 52-week low of $17.06 and a 52-week high of $32.22. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.31). The business had revenue of $204.74 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $205.06 million. Highwoods Properties had a net margin of 18.30% and a return on equity of 6.33%. Highwoods Properties’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.94 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Highwoods Properties will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Highwoods Properties Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 19th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.31%. Highwoods Properties’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 163.93%.

About Highwoods Properties

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.