Norges Bank Purchases New Holdings in STAG Industrial, Inc. (NYSE:STAG)

Norges Bank acquired a new position in STAG Industrial, Inc. (NYSE:STAG) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 2,231,549 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $75,471,000. Norges Bank owned 1.22% of STAG Industrial at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of STAG Industrial by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,403,540 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $133,077,000 after acquiring an additional 21,925 shares in the last quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in STAG Industrial by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 2,259,638 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $76,421,000 after purchasing an additional 164,284 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of STAG Industrial by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,830,394 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $61,905,000 after purchasing an additional 79,762 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of STAG Industrial by 19.3% during the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 1,809,679 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $61,203,000 after buying an additional 292,252 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in STAG Industrial in the 4th quarter valued at $57,561,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.67% of the company’s stock.

STAG Industrial Stock Performance

STAG stock opened at $36.18 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.75 billion, a PE ratio of 34.79 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $35.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.01. STAG Industrial, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.27 and a fifty-two week high of $41.63.

STAG Industrial (NYSE:STAG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.43. STAG Industrial had a return on equity of 5.51% and a net margin of 24.64%. Analysts forecast that STAG Industrial, Inc. will post 2.47 EPS for the current year.

STAG Industrial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.1242 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 4.25%. This is an increase from STAG Industrial’s previous dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. STAG Industrial’s payout ratio is 143.27%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on STAG shares. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on STAG Industrial from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of STAG Industrial from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of STAG Industrial from $40.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at STAG Industrial

In related news, Director Benjamin S. Butcher sold 50,000 shares of STAG Industrial stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.10, for a total transaction of $1,755,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,632 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $338,083.20. The trade was a 83.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

About STAG Industrial

STAG Industrial, Inc is a real estate investment company, which engages in acquiring, owning, and managing single-tenant, industrial real estate assets. It offers industrial real estate operating platform to real estate ownership. The company was founded by Benjamin S. Butcher on July 21, 2010 and is headquartered in Boston, MA.