COPT Defense Properties (CDP) To Go Ex-Dividend on December 31st

COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, November 15th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 0.295 per share on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $1.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st.

COPT Defense Properties has a dividend payout ratio of 92.7% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings fall. Equities analysts expect COPT Defense Properties to earn $2.68 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.14 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 42.5%.

COPT Defense Properties Stock Down 0.5 %

CDP stock opened at $29.91 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.52 and a beta of 0.98. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.03. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56. COPT Defense Properties has a 52 week low of $22.20 and a 52 week high of $34.22.

COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The company reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by ($0.32). The company had revenue of $189.23 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $167.37 million. COPT Defense Properties had a return on equity of 8.99% and a net margin of 18.34%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that COPT Defense Properties will post 2.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on CDP. Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of COPT Defense Properties from $28.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of COPT Defense Properties from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of COPT Defense Properties from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of COPT Defense Properties from $26.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of COPT Defense Properties from $27.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, COPT Defense Properties has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.86.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Britt A. Snider purchased 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $29.41 per share, with a total value of $29,410.00. Following the purchase, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $58,820. This represents a 100.00 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.06% of the company’s stock.

About COPT Defense Properties

COPT Defense, an S&P MidCap 400 Company, is a self-managed REIT focused on owning, operating and developing properties in locations proximate to, or sometimes containing, key U.S. Government (USG) defense installations and missions (referred to as its Defense/IT Portfolio). The Company's tenants include the USG and their defense contractors, who are primarily engaged in priority national security activities, and who generally require mission-critical and high security property enhancements.