StockNews.com Downgrades Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LAND) to Sell

StockNews.com cut shares of Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LAND) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note released on Wednesday.

Separately, Alliance Global Partners cut Gladstone Land from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $16.00 to $14.50 in a research note on Friday, November 8th.

Gladstone Land Stock Performance

Shares of LAND opened at $11.84 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $10.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The company has a market capitalization of $428.43 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -40.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 1.05. Gladstone Land has a 52-week low of $10.27 and a 52-week high of $15.36.

Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LAND) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $21.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.45 million. Gladstone Land had a return on equity of 1.89% and a net margin of 15.59%. Research analysts predict that Gladstone Land will post 0.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gladstone Land Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, January 27th were paid a $0.0467 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 24th. This represents a yield of 5.33%. This is a boost from Gladstone Land’s previous dividend of $0.04. Gladstone Land’s payout ratio is currently -193.10%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gladstone Land

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Gladstone Land by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 905,578 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $9,828,000 after buying an additional 4,946 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Gladstone Land by 2.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 795,775 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $11,061,000 after purchasing an additional 16,079 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Gladstone Land by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 458,975 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,980,000 after purchasing an additional 30,322 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its stake in shares of Gladstone Land by 3.8% during the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 251,838 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,501,000 after purchasing an additional 9,143 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of Gladstone Land by 87.5% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 245,600 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,665,000 after purchasing an additional 114,600 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 53.60% of the company’s stock.

About Gladstone Land

Founded in 1997, Gladstone Land is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires and owns farmland and farm-related properties located in major agricultural markets in the U.S. and leases its properties to unrelated third-party farmers. The Company, which reports the aggregate fair value of its farmland holdings on a quarterly basis, currently owns 169 farms, comprised of approximately 116,000 acres in 15 different states and over 45,000 acre-feet of banked water in California, valued at a total of approximately $1.6 billion.