EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.97 EPS

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) posted its earnings results on Wednesday. The real estate investment trust reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.10 by ($0.97), Yahoo Finance reports. EastGroup Properties had a return on equity of 8.69% and a net margin of 37.16%. The firm had revenue of $162.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $161.52 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.95 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis.

EastGroup Properties Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:EGP traded down $2.00 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $176.53. 540,195 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 297,799. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.21 and a quick ratio of 0.21. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $184.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $175.43. EastGroup Properties has a 1 year low of $155.23 and a 1 year high of $192.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.99.

EastGroup Properties Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a $1.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.17%. This is an increase from EastGroup Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. EastGroup Properties’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 121.48%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EGP has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $209.00 price target on shares of EastGroup Properties in a research note on Friday. Mizuho raised shares of EastGroup Properties from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $175.00 to $200.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of EastGroup Properties from $178.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded EastGroup Properties from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $179.00 to $214.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on EastGroup Properties from $198.00 to $193.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $191.73.

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.