COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) Short Interest Down 7.1% in March

COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,520,000 shares, a decrease of 7.1% from the March 15th total of 3,790,000 shares. Currently, 3.1% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 941,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.7 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on CDP shares. Evercore ISI raised shares of COPT Defense Properties from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $27.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $25.00 target price (down from $29.00) on shares of COPT Defense Properties in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of COPT Defense Properties from $28.00 to $27.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of COPT Defense Properties from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $26.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, COPT Defense Properties presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $26.86.

COPT Defense Properties Stock Down 0.2 %

COPT Defense Properties stock opened at $22.24 on Thursday. COPT Defense Properties has a 1-year low of $21.73 and a 1-year high of $26.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -33.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.93. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $23.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $24.21. The company has a current ratio of 3.36, a quick ratio of 3.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59.

COPT Defense Properties Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 29th were issued a $0.295 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.31%. This is an increase from COPT Defense Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. COPT Defense Properties’s dividend payout ratio is currently -176.12%.

About COPT Defense Properties

COPT Defense, an S&P MidCap 400 Company, is a self-managed REIT focused on owning, operating and developing properties in locations proximate to, or sometimes containing, key U.S. Government (USG) defense installations and missions (referred to as its Defense/IT Portfolio). The Company's tenants include the USG and their defense contractors, who are primarily engaged in priority national security activities, and who generally require mission-critical and high security property enhancements.