Greenleaf Trust Sells 491 Shares of Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE:SPG)

Greenleaf Trust cut its holdings in Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE:SPG) by 4.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 491 shares during the period. Greenleaf Trust’s holdings in Simon Property Group were worth $1,365,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Simon Property Group by 10.4% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,144,366 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $910,337,000 after buying an additional 765,146 shares during the last quarter. Cowa LLC bought a new stake in shares of Simon Property Group in the 1st quarter worth about $107,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Simon Property Group in the 4th quarter worth about $807,887,000. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Simon Property Group by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 6,500,305 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $763,656,000 after buying an additional 421,554 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Simon Property Group by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,745,198 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $512,624,000 after buying an additional 86,778 shares during the last quarter. 93.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on SPG. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Simon Property Group from $143.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Simon Property Group from $142.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. StockNews.com raised Simon Property Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on Simon Property Group from $139.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $140.22.

Simon Property Group Price Performance

SPG opened at $140.44 on Friday. Simon Property Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $100.17 and a 12-month high of $157.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.54. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $149.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $135.70. The company has a market capitalization of $45.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.12, a PEG ratio of 7.37 and a beta of 1.65.

Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.34 by ($1.05). Simon Property Group had a return on equity of 70.97% and a net margin of 42.30%. The firm had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.38 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.15 EPS. Simon Property Group’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Simon Property Group, Inc. will post 12.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Simon Property Group announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, February 8th that authorizes the company to buyback $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the real estate investment trust to buy up to 4.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Simon Property Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were given a dividend of $1.95 per share. This is an increase from Simon Property Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.90. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $7.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.55%. Simon Property Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 111.75%.

About Simon Property Group

Simon is a real estate investment trust engaged in the ownership of premier shopping, dining, entertainment and mixed-use destinations and an S&P 100 company (Simon Property Group, NYSE: SPG). Our properties across North America, Europe and Asia provide community gathering places for millions of people every day and generate billions in annual sales.