Insider Selling: Gladstone Land Co. (NASDAQ:LAND) Director Sells $72,743.02 in Stock

Gladstone Land Co. (NASDAQ:LAND) Director Anthony W. Parker sold 6,601 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.02, for a total value of $72,743.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Gladstone Land Price Performance

Shares of LAND stock opened at $10.82 on Monday. Gladstone Land Co. has a 1-year low of $10.27 and a 1-year high of $15.36. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $11.04 and its 200 day moving average is $12.12. The company has a market cap of $391.52 million, a P/E ratio of -37.31, a PEG ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.70.

Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LAND) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by $0.19. Gladstone Land had a return on equity of 1.89% and a net margin of 15.59%. The company had revenue of $21.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.45 million. Research analysts predict that Gladstone Land Co. will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gladstone Land Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, January 27th were paid a $0.0467 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. This is a boost from Gladstone Land’s previous dividend of $0.04. This represents a yield of 5.33%. Gladstone Land’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -193.10%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gladstone Land

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Gladstone Land by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 905,578 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $9,828,000 after buying an additional 4,946 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Gladstone Land by 2.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 795,775 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $11,061,000 after purchasing an additional 16,079 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Gladstone Land by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 458,975 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,980,000 after purchasing an additional 30,322 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of Gladstone Land by 87.5% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 245,600 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,665,000 after purchasing an additional 114,600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Gladstone Land by 15.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 201,093 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,182,000 after purchasing an additional 26,565 shares during the last quarter. 53.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded Gladstone Land from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th.

About Gladstone Land

Founded in 1997, Gladstone Land is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires and owns farmland and farm-related properties located in major agricultural markets in the U.S. and leases its properties to unrelated third-party farmers. The Company, which reports the aggregate fair value of its farmland holdings on a quarterly basis, currently owns 169 farms, comprised of approximately 116,000 acres in 15 different states and over 45,000 acre-feet of banked water in California, valued at a total of approximately $1.6 billion.