Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) was downgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on CUZ. Mizuho upgraded Cousins Properties from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $30.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Cousins Properties from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Cousins Properties from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $34.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Cousins Properties in a report on Monday, March 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $35.00 price target for the company. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Cousins Properties from $34.00 to $33.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.70.

Cousins Properties Stock Performance

Shares of Cousins Properties stock traded up $1.81 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $26.96. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,417,919 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,257,055. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $29.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $30.09. Cousins Properties has a one year low of $21.58 and a one year high of $32.55. The firm has a market cap of $4.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.62. Cousins Properties had a net margin of 5.36% and a return on equity of 1.00%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Cousins Properties will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Cousins Properties

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CUZ. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Cousins Properties by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,802,104 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $759,936,000 after purchasing an additional 985,934 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Cousins Properties by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 13,491,300 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $413,375,000 after buying an additional 1,350,352 shares during the period. APG Asset Management US Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cousins Properties by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. now owns 7,853,306 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $240,625,000 after acquiring an additional 19,657 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Cousins Properties by 0.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,606,870 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $224,251,000 after acquiring an additional 48,668 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Centersquare Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Cousins Properties by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Centersquare Investment Management LLC now owns 5,600,905 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $171,612,000 after acquiring an additional 585,659 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.38% of the company’s stock.

About Cousins Properties

Cousins Properties Incorporated ("Cousins") is a fully integrated, self-administered, and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company, based in Atlanta and acting through its operating partnership, Cousins Properties LP, primarily invests in Class A office buildings located in high-growth Sun Belt markets.