StockNews.com Begins Coverage on Public Storage (NYSE:PSA)

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Public Storage (NYSE:PSA – Get Rating) in a research note published on Thursday. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Separately, Raymond James cut shares of Public Storage from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research note on Monday, January 9th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $368.91.

Public Storage Stock Performance

NYSE PSA opened at $295.67 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $296.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $296.72. The stock has a market cap of $51.97 billion, a PE ratio of 12.59, a PEG ratio of 3.59 and a beta of 0.44. Public Storage has a fifty-two week low of $270.13 and a fifty-two week high of $421.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a current ratio of 1.51.

Public Storage (NYSE:PSA – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $2.06 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.99 by ($1.93). Public Storage had a return on equity of 72.77% and a net margin of 101.60%. The business had revenue of $1.09 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.54 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Public Storage will post 16.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Public Storage Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 30th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 15th will be issued a dividend of $3.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 14th. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.06%. This is a positive change from Public Storage’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.00. Public Storage’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.09%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Public Storage

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Public Storage by 1.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,495,913 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,001,408,000 after purchasing an additional 286,384 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Public Storage by 1.1% during the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 17,157,864 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,023,993,000 after purchasing an additional 186,843 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Public Storage by 11.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,612,903 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,011,330,000 after purchasing an additional 374,203 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Public Storage during the fourth quarter valued at about $670,512,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of Public Storage by 0.9% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,248,795 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $703,134,000 after purchasing an additional 20,884 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.88% of the company’s stock.

Public Storage Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Public Storage operates as a real estate investment trust, which engages in acquiring, developing, owning and operating self-storage facilities. It operates through the following segments: Self-storage Operations, Ancillary Operations, and Other Items. The Self-storage Operations segment reflects the rental operations from all self-storage facilities.