Mizuho Lowers Safehold (NYSE:SAFE) Price Target to $14.00

Key Points

• Mizuho lowered Safehold’s price target from $16 to $14 while maintaining a neutral rating, implying only 1.41% upside from the prior close.
• Analyst sentiment remains cautious: Safehold has a consensus “Hold” rating and an average price target of $16.83, based on two Buy, seven Hold, and one Sell recommendation.
• Safehold’s latest quarterly results met earnings expectations at $0.42 per share and exceeded revenue estimates, while institutional investors own 70.38% of the stock.

Safehold (NYSE:SAFE - Get Free Report) had its target price cut by research analysts at Mizuho from $16.00 to $14.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a "neutral" rating on the stock. Mizuho's price objective suggests a potential upside of 1.41% from the stock's previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on SAFE. Raymond James Financial started coverage on shares of Safehold in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. They set a "market perform" rating for the company. Wall Street Zen raised Safehold from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, July 4th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Safehold from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Safehold in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Safehold from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $16.83.

Safehold Stock Performance

SAFE opened at $13.80 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 34.36 and a current ratio of 34.37. The company has a market cap of $977.67 million, a PE ratio of 8.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 1.73. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $15.63 and a 200-day moving average of $15.28. Safehold has a 52-week low of $12.76 and a 52-week high of $17.45.

Safehold (NYSE:SAFE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.42. Safehold had a return on equity of 4.76% and a net margin of 27.70%.The company had revenue of $114.65 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $110.78 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Safehold will post 1.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Safehold

In other news, Director Robin Josephs sold 9,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.56, for a total transaction of $138,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 89,068 shares in the company, valued at $1,296,830.08. This represents a 9.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.80% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Safehold

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of SAFE. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in Safehold in the second quarter valued at $4,603,000. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of Safehold by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,938,575 shares of the company's stock worth $156,036,000 after purchasing an additional 200,628 shares in the last quarter. Man Group plc acquired a new stake in shares of Safehold in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,540,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new stake in shares of Safehold in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,726,000. Finally, Infrastructure Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Safehold in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,138,000. 70.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Safehold

Safehold Inc NYSE: SAFE is a real estate investment trust focused on owning and managing ground leases. Through its ground lease structure, Safehold acquires the land beneath commercial real estate properties and leases it to property owners under long-term agreements, allowing those owners to retain ownership of and operate the buildings on the sites.

The company's ground lease investments support a range of property types, including multifamily housing, office buildings, hotels, life sciences facilities, student housing, industrial properties and retail assets.

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