COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) Coverage Initiated at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) in a report released on Monday morning, Marketbeat reports. The firm issued a buy rating and a $31.00 target price on the stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of COPT Defense Properties from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. BTIG Research increased their price target on shares of COPT Defense Properties from $33.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.38.

COPT Defense Properties Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of CDP opened at $27.04 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $3.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.98 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.47. COPT Defense Properties has a fifty-two week low of $22.20 and a fifty-two week high of $34.22. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $28.30 and a 200-day moving average price of $30.23.

COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.33. COPT Defense Properties had a net margin of 18.44% and a return on equity of 9.07%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that COPT Defense Properties will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current year.

COPT Defense Properties Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a $0.305 dividend. This represents a $1.22 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.51%. This is a boost from COPT Defense Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. COPT Defense Properties’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 99.19%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On COPT Defense Properties

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its position in shares of COPT Defense Properties by 813.0% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 6,247,854 shares of the company’s stock worth $193,371,000 after purchasing an additional 5,563,548 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of COPT Defense Properties by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 4,795,639 shares of the company’s stock worth $148,425,000 after purchasing an additional 89,571 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of COPT Defense Properties by 21.9% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,283,383 shares of the company’s stock worth $101,621,000 after purchasing an additional 590,051 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of COPT Defense Properties by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,099,052 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,916,000 after purchasing an additional 335,775 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of COPT Defense Properties by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,927,208 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,797,000 after acquiring an additional 21,388 shares in the last quarter.

About COPT Defense Properties

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.