25,874 Shares in Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) Acquired by Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 25,874 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $793,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its holdings in Cousins Properties by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 466,850 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $14,304,000 after purchasing an additional 21,939 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Cousins Properties by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,677,769 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $82,047,000 after purchasing an additional 189,411 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in Cousins Properties by 23.2% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 6,027 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $185,000 after purchasing an additional 1,135 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in Cousins Properties by 24.5% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 36,162 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,108,000 after purchasing an additional 7,119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Cousins Properties by 13.9% during the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 250,886 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,609,000 after purchasing an additional 30,600 shares during the last quarter. 94.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays dropped their price target on Cousins Properties from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Cousins Properties from $34.00 to $33.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Wolfe Research raised Cousins Properties from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $31.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. StockNews.com raised Cousins Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Cousins Properties in a report on Monday, March 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $35.00 price objective for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Cousins Properties presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.70.

Cousins Properties Price Performance

Cousins Properties stock opened at $28.47 on Friday. 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 Incorporated has a 52 week low of $22.01 and a 52 week high of $32.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 94.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.34. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $27.92 and a 200-day moving average of $29.60.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.03. Cousins Properties had a return on equity of 1.00% and a net margin of 5.36%. The company had revenue of $6.81 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $238.49 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.65 EPS. Cousins Properties’s revenue was up 16.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cousins Properties Incorporated will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cousins Properties Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd were given a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.50%. Cousins Properties’s dividend payout ratio is currently 387.88%.

Cousins Properties Company Profile

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.