Merit Financial Group LLC Decreases Holdings in Public Storage (NYSE:PSA)

Merit Financial Group LLC cut its stake in shares of Public Storage (NYSE:PSA - Free Report) by 11.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,424 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after selling 943 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC's holdings in Public Storage were worth $2,222,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in PSA. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. raised its stake in Public Storage by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 3,270 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $979,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Public Storage by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 20,978 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $6,169,000 after buying an additional 2,213 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC grew its position in shares of Public Storage by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 2,300 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $682,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares during the period. Trilogy Capital Inc. grew its position in shares of Public Storage by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 9,255 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $2,771,000 after acquiring an additional 367 shares during the period. Finally, Buck Wealth Strategies LLC grew its position in shares of Public Storage by 70.7% during the 4th quarter. Buck Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 2,413 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $723,000 after acquiring an additional 999 shares during the period. 78.79% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Public Storage from $365.00 to $330.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Public Storage from $329.00 to $328.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Public Storage from $287.00 to $309.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Public Storage from $297.00 to $309.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Public Storage from $305.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Public Storage presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $339.25.

Public Storage Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of Public Storage stock opened at $300.39 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $295.41 and a 200 day moving average of $302.81. Public Storage has a fifty-two week low of $256.60 and a fifty-two week high of $369.99. The company has a market capitalization of $52.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.19, a P/E/G ratio of 4.91 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 0.97.

Public Storage (NYSE:PSA - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $4.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.06 by $0.06. Public Storage had a return on equity of 34.07% and a net margin of 40.54%. The company had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $4.03 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Public Storage will post 16.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Public Storage Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 12th will be given a dividend of $3.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 12th. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.99%. Public Storage's dividend payout ratio is currently 119.17%.

Public Storage Profile

Public Storage, a member of the S&P 500 and FT Global 500, is a REIT that primarily acquires, develops, owns, and operates self-storage facilities. At December 31, 2023, we had: (i) interests in 3,044 self-storage facilities located in 40 states with approximately 218 million net rentable square feet in the United States and (ii) a 35% common equity interest in Shurgard Self Storage Limited (Euronext Brussels: SHUR), which owned 275 self-storage facilities located in seven Western European nations with approximately 15 million net rentable square feet operated under the Shurgard brand.

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