Cousins Properties Incorporated Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.32 (NYSE:CUZ)

Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, December 18th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.32 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, January 14th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd.

Cousins Properties has decreased its dividend by an average of 4.9% annually over the last three years. Cousins Properties has a payout ratio of 441.4% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities research analysts expect Cousins Properties to earn $2.72 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.28 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.1%.

Cousins Properties Stock Up 1.5 %

Cousins Properties stock traded up $0.45 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $29.83. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,571,048 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,310,687. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $31.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.17. Cousins Properties has a 12 month low of $21.58 and a 12 month high of $32.55. The company has a market capitalization of $4.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 90.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 1.29.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.67 by ($0.60). Cousins Properties had a net margin of 6.17% and a return on equity of 1.14%. The company had revenue of $209.21 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $212.54 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.65 EPS. Cousins Properties’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cousins Properties will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CUZ shares. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Cousins Properties from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Cousins Properties from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Cousins Properties from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Cousins Properties from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, KeyCorp raised shares of Cousins Properties from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $34.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $33.14.

Cousins Properties Company Profile

Cousins Properties Incorporated ("Cousins") is a fully integrated, self-administered, and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company, based in Atlanta and acting through its operating partnership, Cousins Properties LP, primarily invests in Class A office buildings located in high-growth Sun Belt markets.