COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) Shares Bought by American Century Companies Inc.

American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) by 8.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 21,328 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,590 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in COPT Defense Properties were worth $660,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Jane Street Group LLC grew its position in shares of COPT Defense Properties by 50.0% during the third quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 358,026 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,859,000 after acquiring an additional 119,316 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in COPT Defense Properties by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 140,780 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,270,000 after purchasing an additional 1,890 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its position in COPT Defense Properties by 87.6% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 218,999 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,643,000 after purchasing an additional 102,280 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in COPT Defense Properties by 3.4% in the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 21,226 shares of the company’s stock valued at $644,000 after purchasing an additional 701 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of COPT Defense Properties by 0.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,927,208 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,797,000 after buying an additional 21,388 shares during the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of COPT Defense Properties in a research note on Monday, March 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $31.00 target price for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $33.43.

COPT Defense Properties Stock Performance

NYSE:CDP opened at $25.59 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 2.47 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The firm has a market cap of $2.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.80 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $26.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $29.73. COPT Defense Properties has a 1-year low of $22.20 and a 1-year high of $34.22.

COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.33. COPT Defense Properties had a net margin of 18.44% and a return on equity of 9.07%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that COPT Defense Properties will post 2.67 EPS for the current year.

COPT Defense Properties Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.305 dividend. This represents a $1.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This is a positive change from COPT Defense Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. COPT Defense Properties’s payout ratio is currently 99.19%.

COPT Defense Properties Profile

COPT Defense Properties is a real estate investment trust. It acquires, develops, manages, sells, and leases out office properties and data centers. The firm operates through the following segments: Defense/Information Technology Locations, Regional Office, Wholesale Data Center, and Other. The company was founded on January 22,1988 and is headquartered in Columbia, MD.