Vanguard Group Inc. Sells 224,220 Shares of Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW)

Vanguard Group Inc. cut its holdings in Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,504,094 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 224,220 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 15.57% of Highwoods Properties worth $504,695,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Aew Capital Management L P bought a new stake in Highwoods Properties in the fourth quarter worth $31,250,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Highwoods Properties by 40.9% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,130,452 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $107,155,000 after acquiring an additional 908,401 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of Highwoods Properties by 472.5% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 885,541 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $29,674,000 after acquiring an additional 730,859 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its stake in shares of Highwoods Properties by 55.9% in the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,267,553 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $38,762,000 after acquiring an additional 454,670 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in Highwoods Properties by 537.7% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 485,368 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $16,264,000 after purchasing an additional 409,258 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on HIW. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Highwoods Properties in a research report on Monday, March 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $32.00 price target on the stock. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Highwoods Properties from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Highwoods Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on Highwoods Properties from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $32.50.

Highwoods Properties Trading Down 0.5 %

Highwoods Properties stock opened at $29.49 on Wednesday. Highwoods Properties, Inc. has a 12 month low of $23.52 and a 12 month high of $36.78. The stock has a market cap of $3.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.04 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $29.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $31.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41.

Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85. Highwoods Properties had a net margin of 12.37% and a return on equity of 4.33%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Highwoods Properties, Inc. will post 3.36 EPS for the current year.

Highwoods Properties Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. Highwoods Properties’s dividend payout ratio is 210.53%.

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.