Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) Given Average Recommendation of "Hold" by Brokerages

Key Points

• Highwoods Properties, Inc. has a consensus rating of "Hold" from six research firms, with five rating the stock as hold and one as buy.
• The company's average one-year price target among brokers is $32.1667, with recent adjustments from firms like Truist Financial and Wells Fargo affecting their target prices.
• Highwoods recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.50, with a yield of 6.3% and a dividend payout ratio of 168.07%.

Shares of Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average rating of "Hold" from the six analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $32.1667.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on HIW. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective 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. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Highwoods Properties from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 16th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Highwoods Properties from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Highwoods Properties from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd.

Highwoods Properties Price Performance

Shares of HIW stock traded up $0.08 on Tuesday, reaching $32.40. 1,009,338 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,015,755. The company has a market cap of $3.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.23 and a beta of 1.27. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $30.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.63. 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 has a 1 year low of $24.18 and a 1 year high of $36.78.

Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.04. Highwoods Properties had a net margin of 16.15% and a return on equity of 5.57%. The company had revenue of $200.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $203.22 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. Highwoods Properties's revenue was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Highwoods Properties has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.370-3.450 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Highwoods Properties will post 3.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Highwoods Properties Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Trading of Highwoods Properties

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Highwoods Properties by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,564,027 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $204,076,000 after buying an additional 86,506 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 2,852,877 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Highwoods Properties by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,660,872 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $108,509,000 after purchasing an additional 10,331 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Highwoods Properties by 15.1% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,959,480 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $87,719,000 after purchasing an additional 388,332 shares during the period. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Highwoods Properties by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 2,190,938 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $68,116,000 after purchasing an additional 8,525 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.31% of the company's stock.

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.