Vestcor Inc Makes New $2.05 Million Investment in EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP)

Vestcor Inc purchased a new position in shares of EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 12,782 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $2,051,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in EastGroup Properties by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 95,887 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $15,389,000 after acquiring an additional 1,900 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of EastGroup Properties by 48.2% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,125 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $181,000 after purchasing an additional 366 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of EastGroup Properties during the 4th quarter worth about $1,946,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of EastGroup Properties by 210.6% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 707,732 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $113,584,000 after buying an additional 479,873 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its stake in shares of EastGroup Properties by 49.8% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 30,177 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,843,000 after buying an additional 10,027 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on EGP shares. Raymond James upgraded EastGroup Properties from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $185.00 to $200.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of EastGroup Properties in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of EastGroup Properties from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com raised shares of EastGroup Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of EastGroup Properties from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $174.00 to $194.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, EastGroup Properties presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $191.65.

EastGroup Properties Stock Up 1.9 %

EGP stock opened at $179.96 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $9.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.70, a P/E/G ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 0.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $173.08 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $175.23. EastGroup Properties, Inc. has a 1-year low of $155.10 and a 1-year high of $192.61.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.16 by $0.99. EastGroup Properties had a return on equity of 7.89% and a net margin of 35.57%. Analysts expect that EastGroup Properties, Inc. will post 8.94 EPS for the current year.

EastGroup Properties Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $1.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.11%. EastGroup Properties’s dividend payout ratio is currently 120.43%.

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.