Highwoods Properties, Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.50 (NYSE:HIW)

Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, October 21st,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, December 10th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th.

Highwoods Properties has raised its dividend by an average of 1.4% per year over the last three years. Highwoods Properties has a dividend payout ratio of 377.4% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities research analysts expect Highwoods Properties to earn $3.52 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 56.8%.

Highwoods Properties Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of HIW stock opened at $31.66 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.31, a current ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41. Highwoods Properties has a fifty-two week low of $17.58 and a fifty-two week high of $36.78. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $33.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $29.96. The stock has a market cap of $3.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.63 and a beta of 1.26.

Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by ($0.74). Highwoods Properties had a net margin of 17.40% and a return on equity of 6.05%. The business had revenue of $204.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $204.96 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.93 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Highwoods Properties will post 3.62 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on HIW. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Highwoods Properties from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Highwoods Properties from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Highwoods Properties from $29.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Highwoods Properties from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the company from $31.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.20.

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.