ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Invests $203,000 in COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP)

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new position in COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 6,573 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $203,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CDP. USA Financial Formulas bought a new stake in shares of COPT Defense Properties in the fourth quarter worth about $90,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of COPT Defense Properties by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 376,938 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,666,000 after purchasing an additional 18,278 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of COPT Defense Properties by 77.8% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,403 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 614 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of COPT Defense Properties by 35.8% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,693,332 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,689,000 after purchasing an additional 710,491 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in shares of COPT Defense Properties in the third quarter worth about $91,000.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CDP has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on COPT Defense Properties from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on COPT Defense Properties from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. BTIG Research lifted their price target on COPT Defense Properties from $33.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on COPT Defense Properties from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.88.

COPT Defense Properties Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE CDP opened at $29.89 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.50 and a beta of 0.99. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $31.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.23. COPT Defense Properties has a 52-week low of $22.20 and a 52-week high of $34.22.

COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by ($0.32). The firm had revenue of $189.23 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $167.37 million. COPT Defense Properties had a net margin of 18.34% and a return on equity of 8.99%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that COPT Defense Properties will post 2.58 earnings per share for the current year.

COPT Defense Properties Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a $0.295 dividend. This represents a $1.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. COPT Defense Properties’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 96.72%.

COPT Defense Properties Profile

COPT Defense Properties is a real estate investment trust. It acquires, develops, manages, sells, and leases out office properties and data centers. The firm operates through the following segments: Defense/Information Technology Locations, Regional Office, Wholesale Data Center, and Other. The company was founded on January 22,1988 and is headquartered in Columbia, MD.