Davis Selected Advisers Sells 57,280 Shares of Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ)

Key Points

• Davis Selected Advisers reduced its stake in Cousins Properties by 11.4%, owning 446,935 shares after selling 57,280 shares in the first quarter.
• Cousins Properties reported a quarterly EPS of $0.70, meeting analysts' expectations, with a net margin of 6.51% and revenue of $237.72 million.
• The firm declared a quarterly dividend of $0.32 per share, yielding 4.7%, but has a high dividend payout ratio of 345.95%.

Davis Selected Advisers lowered its position in shares of Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ - Free Report) by 11.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 446,935 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after selling 57,280 shares during the quarter. Davis Selected Advisers owned 0.27% of Cousins Properties worth $13,185,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Swiss National Bank boosted its position in Cousins Properties by 8.6% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 324,833 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $9,583,000 after acquiring an additional 25,600 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in Cousins Properties by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 117,564 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $3,468,000 after acquiring an additional 7,057 shares during the last quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board boosted its position in Cousins Properties by 57.9% during the 1st quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 76,570 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $2,259,000 after acquiring an additional 28,081 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Cousins Properties by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,753,741 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $759,735,000 after acquiring an additional 951,637 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Cousins Properties by 579.7% during the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 2,712 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 2,313 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.38% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CUZ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Cousins Properties from $34.00 to $32.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 19th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Cousins Properties from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, August 2nd. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Cousins Properties from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Truist Financial downgraded Cousins Properties from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $31.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on Cousins Properties from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $32.50.

Cousins Properties Stock Performance

Cousins Properties stock traded down $0.30 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $26.74. 2,258,500 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,670,479. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $28.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.74. Cousins Properties Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $24.07 and a fifty-two week high of $32.55. The stock has a market cap of $4.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 2.45 and a quick ratio of 2.45.

Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.70. Cousins Properties had a return on equity of 1.27% and a net margin of 6.51%. The business had revenue of $237.72 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $243.73 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.68 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Cousins Properties Incorporated will post 2.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cousins Properties Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 7th were issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 7th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.8%. Cousins Properties's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 345.95%.

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.