AQR Capital Management LLC Buys 64,262 Shares of CubeSmart (NYSE:CUBE)

AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in CubeSmart (NYSE:CUBE) by 101.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 127,499 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 64,262 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.06% of CubeSmart worth $5,435,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC grew its stake in CubeSmart by 54.0% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 330,549 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $17,793,000 after purchasing an additional 115,904 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in CubeSmart by 13.1% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 319,316 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $15,950,000 after buying an additional 36,919 shares during the period. Everence Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in CubeSmart during the fourth quarter worth about $231,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in CubeSmart by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 427,579 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $18,305,000 after acquiring an additional 19,012 shares during the period. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in CubeSmart by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 33,491 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,435,000 after acquiring an additional 478 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CUBE. Mizuho initiated coverage on CubeSmart in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $39.00 price target on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of CubeSmart from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of CubeSmart from $53.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of CubeSmart from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Truist Financial raised shares of CubeSmart from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $50.00 to $47.00 in a report on Friday, January 17th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.85.

CubeSmart Price Performance

CUBE opened at $42.44 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.20 and a current ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.72 billion, a PE ratio of 23.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.58 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $40.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $43.21. CubeSmart has a 52-week low of $34.24 and a 52-week high of $55.14.

CubeSmart (NYSE:CUBE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.02. CubeSmart had a net margin of 37.79% and a return on equity of 14.33%. The company had revenue of $273.04 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $268.16 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.64 earnings per share. CubeSmart’s revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that CubeSmart will post 2.64 EPS for the current year.

CubeSmart Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 1st were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.90%. CubeSmart’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.