Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE) Increases Dividend to $0.19 Per Share

Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 11th,NASDAQ Dividends reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.19 per share by the real estate investment trust on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.58%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Urban Edge Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17.

Urban Edge Properties has increased its dividend by an average of 4.3% annually over the last three years. Urban Edge Properties has a payout ratio of 128.3% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Urban Edge Properties to earn $1.40 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 48.6%.

Urban Edge Properties Price Performance

Shares of UE traded up $0.45 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $21.20. 1,192,466 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 791,427. Urban Edge Properties has a one year low of $15.81 and a one year high of $23.85. The firm has a market cap of $2.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.51 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.30. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $21.05 and a 200-day moving average of $21.32.

Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.25. Urban Edge Properties had a net margin of 59.23% and a return on equity of 20.89%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Urban Edge Properties will post 1.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Jeffrey S. Olson sold 240,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.45, for a total value of $5,388,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,931 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,350.95. The trade was a 99.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Urban Edge Properties from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 24th.

About Urban Edge Properties

Urban Edge Properties is a NYSE listed real estate investment trust focused on owning, managing, acquiring, developing, and redeveloping retail real estate in urban communities, primarily in the Washington, DC to Boston corridor. Urban Edge owns 76 properties totaling 17.1 million square feet of gross leasable area.