Kera Capital Partners Inc. Purchases New Shares in Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW)

Kera Capital Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 7,884 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $234,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in HIW. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in Highwoods Properties by 375.0% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 855 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 675 shares during the period. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. purchased a new position in Highwoods Properties during the fourth quarter valued at $59,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Highwoods Properties by 124.7% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,434 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $73,000 after buying an additional 1,351 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Highwoods Properties by 363.7% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,972 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $91,000 after buying an additional 2,331 shares during the period. Finally, State of Wyoming lifted its position in Highwoods Properties by 88.4% during the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 3,137 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $96,000 after buying an additional 1,472 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HIW has been the subject of several recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Highwoods Properties in a research report on Monday, March 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $32.00 price objective for the company. Truist Financial lowered their price target on Highwoods Properties from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target 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, Wall Street Zen raised Highwoods Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.83.

Highwoods Properties Trading Up 2.1%

HIW stock opened at $30.16 on Friday. Highwoods Properties, Inc. has a 1-year low of $24.19 and a 1-year high of $36.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.25. The company has a market capitalization of $3.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.75 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $28.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $29.49.

Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $200.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $201.31 million. Highwoods Properties had a return on equity of 4.33% and a net margin of 12.37%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.89 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Highwoods Properties, Inc. will post 3.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Highwoods Properties Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 19th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.63%. Highwoods Properties’s payout ratio is presently 124.22%.

Highwoods Properties Profile

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.