Highwoods Properties, Inc. $HIW Shares Sold by Advisors Asset Management Inc.

Key Points

• Advisors Asset Management Inc. reduced its holdings in Highwoods Properties by 49.6%, selling 21,645 shares in the first quarter, leaving them with 21,996 shares valued at approximately $652,000.
• Highwoods Properties reported a quarterly earnings per share of $0.89, exceeding expectations, but its revenue was down 2% year-over-year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.50, offering an annualized yield of 6.3% with a high dividend payout ratio of 168.07%.

Advisors Asset Management Inc. decreased its holdings in Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW - Free Report) by 49.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,996 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after selling 21,645 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Highwoods Properties were worth $652,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in Highwoods Properties by 87.4% in the first quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,118,701 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $181,358,000 after purchasing an additional 2,852,877 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in Highwoods Properties by 512.9% in the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,274,443 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $38,961,000 after purchasing an additional 1,066,508 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Highwoods Properties by 15.1% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,959,480 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $87,719,000 after buying an additional 388,332 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Highwoods Properties during the first quarter worth about $9,331,000. Finally, Eisler Capital Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Highwoods Properties during the first quarter worth about $6,811,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.31% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Highwoods Properties from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Highwoods Properties from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Highwoods Properties from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Highwoods Properties from $35.00 to $31.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $32.17.

Highwoods Properties Stock Performance

NYSE HIW traded down $0.04 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $32.17. The company had a trading volume of 1,169,413 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,052,647. The business has a 50 day moving average of $30.38 and a 200-day moving average of $29.71. The company has a market cap of $3.48 billion, a PE ratio of 27.03 and a beta of 1.27. Highwoods Properties, Inc. has a 1-year low of $24.18 and a 1-year high of $36.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 1.38.

Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $200.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $203.22 million. Highwoods Properties had a return on equity of 5.57% and a net margin of 16.15%.The business's revenue was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. Highwoods Properties has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.370-3.450 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Highwoods Properties, Inc. will post 3.36 EPS for the current year.

Highwoods Properties Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 9th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 18th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 18th. Highwoods Properties's dividend payout ratio is presently 168.07%.

About Highwoods Properties

Highwoods Properties, Inc, headquartered in Raleigh, is a publicly-traded NYSE: HIW, fully-integrated office real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, develops, acquires, leases and manages properties primarily in the best business districts (BBDs) of Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa.