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

EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 2nd,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of 1.40 per share by the real estate investment trust on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.29%.

EastGroup Properties has raised its dividend by an average of 27.7% annually over the last three years. EastGroup Properties has a payout ratio of 116.2% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities analysts expect EastGroup Properties to earn $8.98 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 62.4%.

EastGroup Properties Stock Down 0.4 %

NYSE EGP traded down $0.60 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $170.09. The stock had a trading volume of 21,410 shares, compared to its average volume of 301,151. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $177.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $177.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.08. EastGroup Properties has a 1 year low of $155.23 and a 1 year high of $192.61. The stock has a market cap of $8.42 billion, a PE ratio of 35.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.99.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.10 by ($0.97). The business had revenue of $162.88 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $161.52 million. EastGroup Properties had a net margin of 37.19% and a return on equity of 8.56%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.95 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that EastGroup Properties will post 8.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

EGP has been the topic of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $186.00 target price on shares of EastGroup Properties in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Truist Financial lowered their target price on EastGroup Properties from $190.00 to $186.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of EastGroup Properties from $198.00 to $193.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $209.00 price objective on shares of EastGroup Properties in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of EastGroup Properties from $204.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $191.21.

About EastGroup Properties

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.