Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Boosts Holdings in CubeSmart (NYSE:CUBE)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its stake in CubeSmart (NYSE:CUBE - Free Report) by 173.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,935 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after purchasing an additional 7,573 shares during the quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV's holdings in CubeSmart were worth $511,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of CUBE. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of CubeSmart by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,507,111 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,350,080,000 after buying an additional 85,609 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in CubeSmart in the 4th quarter worth approximately $408,064,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in CubeSmart by 27.8% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,727,155 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $288,259,000 after acquiring an additional 1,464,331 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in CubeSmart by 8.9% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,299,460 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $184,232,000 after purchasing an additional 352,754 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of CubeSmart by 46.6% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,758,863 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $161,067,000 after purchasing an additional 1,195,246 shares during the period. 97.61% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on CUBE. KeyCorp upgraded shares of CubeSmart from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $47.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Mizuho started coverage on CubeSmart in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $39.00 price target on the stock. Scotiabank upped their price objective on CubeSmart from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Monday. Truist Financial upgraded CubeSmart from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and cut their target price for the stock from $50.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on CubeSmart from $53.00 to $48.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $46.93.

CubeSmart Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CUBE traded up $1.00 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $43.67. 1,745,436 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,482,905. The company's 50 day moving average is $40.59 and its 200 day moving average is $43.00. CubeSmart has a one year low of $34.24 and a one year high of $55.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.20 and a quick ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.96 billion, a PE ratio of 24.67, a P/E/G ratio of 11.58 and a beta of 1.00.

CubeSmart (NYSE:CUBE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.02. CubeSmart had a net margin of 37.79% and a return on equity of 14.33%. The business had revenue of $273.04 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $268.16 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.64 earnings per share. CubeSmart's quarterly revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that CubeSmart will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current year.

CubeSmart Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.76%. CubeSmart's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 123.08%.

CubeSmart Company Profile

CubeSmart is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust. The Company's self-storage properties are designed to offer affordable, easily accessible and, in most locations, climate-controlled storage space for residential and commercial customers. According to the 2023 Self-Storage Almanac, CubeSmart is one of the top three owners and operators of self-storage properties in the United States.