Samalin Investment Counsel LLC Buys New Position in Highwoods Properties, Inc. $HIW

Key Points

• Samalin Investment Counsel LLC has acquired a new stake in Highwoods Properties, Inc. ($HIW), purchasing 8,481 shares valued at approximately $251,000 in the first quarter.
• Highwoods Properties recently reported an EPS of $0.89 for the quarter, exceeding estimates, but also faced a 2% revenue decline year-over-year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.50, representing a 6.7% dividend yield, while its dividend payout ratio stands at 168.07%.

Samalin Investment Counsel LLC purchased a new stake in Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 8,481 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock, valued at approximately $251,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in Highwoods Properties by 87.4% during the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,118,701 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $181,358,000 after buying an additional 2,852,877 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Highwoods Properties by 0.3% in the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,660,872 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $108,509,000 after buying an additional 10,331 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Highwoods Properties by 15.1% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Highwoods Properties by 7.3% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,989,894 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $58,980,000 after buying an additional 135,059 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of Highwoods Properties by 512.9% during the fourth 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. Institutional investors own 96.31% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on HIW. Wall Street Zen lowered Highwoods Properties from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 16th. Truist Financial downgraded Highwoods Properties from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $32.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Highwoods Properties from $35.00 to $31.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on Highwoods Properties from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $32.00.

Highwoods Properties Stock Up 1.4%

Shares of NYSE HIW traded up $0.44 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $31.54. 1,719,205 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,203,012. The company has a market cap of $3.41 billion, a PE ratio of 26.50 and a beta of 1.27. Highwoods Properties, Inc. has a one year low of $24.18 and a one year high of $36.78. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $30.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $29.48. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $200.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $203.22 million. Highwoods Properties had a return on equity of 5.57% and a net margin of 16.15%.The company's quarterly revenue was down 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. Highwoods Properties has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.370-3.450 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Highwoods Properties, Inc. will post 3.36 EPS for the current year.

Highwoods Properties Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 9th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 18th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.3%. Highwoods Properties's payout ratio is currently 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.