Easterly Investment Partners LLC Raises Position in Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW)

Easterly Investment Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 113,364 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 3,100 shares during the period. Easterly Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Highwoods Properties were worth $3,467,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Highwoods Properties by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 699,013 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $21,376,000 after purchasing an additional 42,744 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Highwoods Properties by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 40,266 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,231,000 after buying an additional 2,931 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in shares of Highwoods Properties in the fourth quarter valued at about $636,000. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in shares of Highwoods Properties by 32.2% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,328,543 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $40,627,000 after buying an additional 323,946 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its stake in shares of Highwoods Properties by 38.4% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 56,612 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,731,000 after buying an additional 15,712 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on HIW shares. StockNews.com raised Highwoods Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 14th. Mizuho raised their target price on Highwoods Properties from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Highwoods Properties in a research report on Monday, March 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $32.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Highwoods Properties from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Highwoods Properties currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.86.

Highwoods Properties Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of HIW opened at $29.34 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41. The firm has a market cap of $3.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.88 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $29.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.16. Highwoods Properties, Inc. has a 12-month low of $23.52 and a 12-month high of $36.78.

Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85. Highwoods Properties had a net margin of 12.37% and a return on equity of 4.33%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Highwoods Properties, Inc. will post 3.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Highwoods Properties Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.82%. Highwoods Properties’s dividend payout ratio is presently 210.53%.

Highwoods Properties Company Profile

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.