Wright Investors Service Inc. Lowers Stake in Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE:SPG)

Wright Investors Service Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE:SPG) by 59.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,180 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 4,626 shares during the quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc.’s holdings in Simon Property Group were worth $454,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SPG. Cowa LLC acquired a new stake in Simon Property Group during the 1st quarter worth approximately $107,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Simon Property Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $807,887,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Simon Property Group by 13,226.4% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 920,586 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $131,312,000 after buying an additional 913,678 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Simon Property Group by 10.4% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Simon Property Group by 527.3% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 804,952 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $105,899,000 after purchasing an additional 676,627 shares in the last quarter. 93.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SPG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Simon Property Group from $139.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Simon Property Group from $143.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, February 26th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Simon Property Group from $142.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Simon Property Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Simon Property Group from $144.00 to $161.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $140.22.

Simon Property Group Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of Simon Property Group stock opened at $140.36 on Friday. Simon Property Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $100.17 and a 1 year high of $157.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.54, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77. The company has a market capitalization of $45.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.11, a PEG ratio of 7.39 and a beta of 1.65. The company’s fifty day moving average is $149.49 and its two-hundred day moving average is $135.23.

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

Simon Property Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a $1.95 dividend. This is an increase from Simon Property Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.90. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $7.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.56%. Simon Property Group’s payout ratio is presently 111.75%.

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

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.