Easterly Government Properties, Inc. (NYSE:DEA) Given Average Recommendation of "Hold" by Brokerages

Key Points

• Easterly Government Properties, Inc. (NYSE:DEA) currently holds an average consensus rating of "Hold" from brokerages, with varying ratings including one sell, three holds, and one buy.
• The company has recently experienced significant institutional investments, with notable increases from firms like Millennium Management and Two Sigma Investments, indicating a growing interest in the stock.
• Easterly Government Properties has cut its dividend to $0.45 per share, which translates to an annual yield of 7.9%, while reporting a high payout ratio of 439.02%.

Easterly Government Properties, Inc. (NYSE:DEA - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average rating of "Hold" from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $27.15.

Several research analysts have issued reports on DEA shares. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on Easterly Government Properties from $27.50 to $22.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Easterly Government Properties from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $25.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Easterly Government Properties from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Friday, June 6th.

Easterly Government Properties Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE DEA traded down $0.60 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $22.81. The stock had a trading volume of 519,984 shares, compared to its average volume of 575,879. The business's fifty day moving average is $22.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 3.75 and a quick ratio of 3.75. The company has a market cap of $1.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.64 and a beta of 0.96. Easterly Government Properties has a twelve month low of $19.33 and a twelve month high of $36.31.

Easterly Government Properties (NYSE:DEA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.74. Easterly Government Properties had a return on equity of 1.26% and a net margin of 5.54%.The firm had revenue of $80.37 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.73 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.29 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Easterly Government Properties has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.980-3.030 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Easterly Government Properties will post 1.17 EPS for the current year.

Easterly Government Properties Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 13th were issued a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 13th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.9%. Easterly Government Properties's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 439.02%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Easterly Government Properties

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Easterly Government Properties by 0.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,221,717 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $118,950,000 after buying an additional 62,164 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in Easterly Government Properties by 25.7% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 2,339,515 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $24,799,000 after buying an additional 478,037 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in Easterly Government Properties by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,258,518 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $25,657,000 after buying an additional 97,286 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Easterly Government Properties by 2.9% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,116,599 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $22,436,000 after buying an additional 60,351 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Easterly Government Properties by 1.3% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,001,924 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $21,220,000 after buying an additional 26,596 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.

About Easterly Government Properties

Easterly Government Properties, Inc NYSE: DEA is based in Washington, DC, and focuses primarily on the acquisition, development and management of Class A commercial properties that are leased to the U.S. Government. Easterly's experienced management team brings specialized insight into the strategy and needs of mission-critical U.S.