Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) Declares $0.50 Quarterly Dividend

Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, October 22nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, December 10th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.62%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th.

Highwoods Properties has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.4% annually over the last three years. Highwoods Properties has a dividend payout ratio of 333.3% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities research analysts expect Highwoods Properties to earn $3.54 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 56.5%.

Highwoods Properties Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HIW traded up $0.01 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $35.59. The company had a trading volume of 1,334,901 shares, compared to its average volume of 982,238. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.05 and a beta of 1.26. Highwoods Properties has a twelve month low of $17.06 and a twelve month high of $36.55. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.31). Highwoods Properties had a return on equity of 6.33% and a net margin of 18.30%. The firm had revenue of $204.74 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $205.06 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.94 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Highwoods Properties will post 3.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on HIW. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Highwoods Properties from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $31.00 to $35.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Highwoods Properties from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Highwoods Properties from $29.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Highwoods Properties from $22.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Highwoods Properties presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $28.50.

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.