26,870 Shares in Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) Bought by Perpetual Ltd

Perpetual Ltd purchased a new stake in Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 26,870 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $822,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Highwoods Properties by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,289,806 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $244,281,000 after purchasing an additional 124,646 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Highwoods Properties by 40.9% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,130,452 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $107,155,000 after buying an additional 908,401 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of Highwoods Properties by 131.0% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,708,996 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $90,778,000 after buying an additional 1,536,067 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Highwoods Properties by 1.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,061,572 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $69,083,000 after buying an additional 34,885 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Highwoods Properties by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,902,036 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $63,754,000 after acquiring an additional 12,958 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HIW has been the subject of a number of research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Highwoods Properties from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $31.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Mizuho lifted their target price on Highwoods Properties from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Highwoods Properties from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Highwoods Properties from $35.00 to $31.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Highwoods Properties from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.86.

Highwoods Properties Price Performance

NYSE:HIW opened at $30.08 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $30.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.53. Highwoods Properties, Inc. has a 1-year low of $21.46 and a 1-year high of $36.78. The firm has a market cap of $3.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.44 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a current ratio of 1.31 and a quick ratio of 1.31.

Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by ($0.74). Highwoods Properties had a return on equity of 6.05% and a net margin of 17.40%. The firm had revenue of $204.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $204.96 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.93 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Highwoods Properties, Inc. will post 3.61 EPS for the current year.

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.