Meritage Portfolio Management Acquires 33,675 Shares of Getty Realty Corporation $GTY

Key Points

• Meritage Portfolio Management raised its stake in Getty Realty (NYSE:GTY) by 31.2%, purchasing 33,675 shares in Q4 to hold 141,628 shares worth $3.876 million.
• Institutional ownership is high at 85.11%, with large investors such as Vanguard (8.39M shares, ~$225M), State Street, Millennium, Invesco and Qube all increasing positions, signaling broad institutional accumulation.
• Getty Realty pays a quarterly dividend of $0.485 (annualized $1.94, 5.7% yield) but has a high payout ratio of 144.78%; analysts hold a consensus "Moderate Buy" with an average target of $32.20 and recent price-target increases to $33.

Meritage Portfolio Management raised its holdings in shares of Getty Realty Corporation (NYSE:GTY - Free Report) by 31.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 141,628 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after purchasing an additional 33,675 shares during the quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management owned 0.25% of Getty Realty worth $3,876,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Getty Realty by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,386,280 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $225,004,000 after purchasing an additional 51,602 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Getty Realty by 3.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,858,470 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $108,315,000 after acquiring an additional 124,350 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Getty Realty by 42.3% in the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,142,413 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $30,651,000 after acquiring an additional 339,388 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Getty Realty by 11.3% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 569,024 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $15,267,000 after acquiring an additional 57,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Getty Realty by 58.1% in the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 527,290 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $14,574,000 after acquiring an additional 193,851 shares in the last quarter. 85.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GTY has been the subject of several recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Getty Realty from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Getty Realty from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Getty Realty from $29.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, March 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $32.20.

Getty Realty Stock Performance

Shares of Getty Realty stock opened at $34.12 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.04 billion, a PE ratio of 25.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a current ratio of 2.20. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $29.84. Getty Realty Corporation has a one year low of $25.39 and a one year high of $34.72.

Getty Realty (NYSE:GTY - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $60.55 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.94 million. Getty Realty had a net margin of 35.72% and a return on equity of 7.86%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Getty Realty Corporation will post 2.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Getty Realty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 26th were issued a $0.485 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 26th. This represents a $1.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.7%. Getty Realty's payout ratio is currently 144.78%.

About Getty Realty

Getty Realty Corp is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) that specializes in the acquisition, ownership and leasing of service station and convenience retail properties. The company's portfolio consists primarily of fee-simple and ground-leased sites, which are leased to major national and regional fuel and convenience store operators under long-term, triple-net leases. This structure provides Getty Realty with a stable stream of contractual rental income and limited operational responsibilities.

Founded in 1981, Getty Realty became a publicly listed company in 2005 and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GTY.

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