Castellan Group Buys New Shares in EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP)

Castellan Group acquired a new position in shares of EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 22,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $3,622,000. EastGroup Properties accounts for 1.6% of Castellan Group’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest holding.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp raised its stake in EastGroup Properties by 2.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,427,405 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $456,872,000 after purchasing an additional 49,268 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in EastGroup Properties by 67.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,558,083 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $291,081,000 after purchasing an additional 629,827 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of EastGroup Properties by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 899,219 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $168,032,000 after buying an additional 10,435 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of EastGroup Properties by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 639,800 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $119,527,000 after buying an additional 22,328 shares during the period. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its position in shares of EastGroup Properties by 50.9% during the 4th quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 517,770 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $83,098,000 after buying an additional 174,630 shares during the period. 92.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EGP has been the subject of several research reports. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of EastGroup Properties from $190.00 to $186.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on EastGroup Properties from $214.00 to $199.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 4th. StockNews.com raised EastGroup Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on EastGroup Properties from $186.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised EastGroup Properties from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $174.00 to $194.00 in a 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, EastGroup Properties currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $190.88.

EastGroup Properties Trading Up 0.0 %

NYSE EGP opened at $178.83 on Thursday. EastGroup Properties, Inc. has a 12 month low of $155.10 and a 12 month high of $192.61. The stock has a market cap of $8.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.46, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $166.07 and its 200-day moving average price is $175.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.16 by $0.99. EastGroup Properties had a return on equity of 8.27% and a net margin of 35.57%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that EastGroup Properties, Inc. will post 8.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

EastGroup Properties Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a dividend of $1.40 per share. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.13%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. EastGroup Properties’s 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.