Congress Asset Management Co. Cuts Stock Position in Highwoods Properties, Inc. $HIW

Congress Asset Management Co. cut its holdings in shares of Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) by 5.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 128,713 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 7,550 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co.’s holdings in Highwoods Properties were worth $4,002,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in Highwoods Properties by 87.4% during the first 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. increased its stake in Highwoods Properties by 0.3% during the first 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. increased its stake in Highwoods Properties by 15.1% during the first 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. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Highwoods Properties by 7.3% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,989,894 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $58,980,000 after purchasing an additional 135,059 shares during the period. Finally, Aew Capital Management L P increased its stake in Highwoods Properties by 13.3% during the first quarter. Aew Capital Management L P now owns 1,158,110 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $34,326,000 after purchasing an additional 136,200 shares during the period. 96.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Highwoods Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 13th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Highwoods Properties from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Highwoods Properties from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Highwoods Properties has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $32.17.

Insider Transactions at Highwoods Properties

In related news, Director David John Hartzell sold 4,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.10, for a total value of $138,030.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 27,489 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $882,396.90. This represents a 13.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Highwoods Properties Stock Performance

Shares of HIW opened at $31.26 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $30.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The company has a market capitalization of $3.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.27 and a beta of 1.27. Highwoods Properties, Inc. has a 52-week low of $24.18 and a 52-week high of $36.78.

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

Highwoods Properties Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 9th. Investors of record on Monday, August 18th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 18th. Highwoods Properties’s dividend payout ratio is 168.07%.

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.