Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.50

Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, October 21st, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders 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 yield of 5.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th.

Highwoods Properties has increased its dividend by an average of 1.4% annually over the last three years. Highwoods Properties has a 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 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 Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE HIW traded down $0.01 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $35.57. 1,335,843 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 982,242. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.29. The business’s fifty day moving average is $32.74 and its 200 day moving average is $28.83. 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 fifty-two week low of $17.06 and a fifty-two week high of $36.55.

Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company posted $0.94 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Highwoods Properties will post 3.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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