Highwoods Properties Inc (HIW) Shares Sold by UMB Bank N A MO

UMB Bank N A MO reduced its stake in Highwoods Properties Inc (NYSE:HIW) by 6.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 91,939 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 6,310 shares during the period. UMB Bank N A MO owned 0.09% of Highwoods Properties worth $4,664,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BB&T Securities LLC bought a new stake in Highwoods Properties in the fourth quarter valued at $200,000. Wealthstreet Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Highwoods Properties during the second quarter valued at about $203,000. Xact Kapitalforvaltning AB acquired a new position in shares of Highwoods Properties during the fourth quarter valued at about $225,000. Advisor Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Highwoods Properties by 470.8% during the fourth quarter. Advisor Group Inc. now owns 4,452 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $227,000 after buying an additional 3,672 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TLP Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Highwoods Properties by 39.3% during the first quarter. TLP Group LLC now owns 5,151 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $226,000 after buying an additional 1,453 shares during the last quarter. 92.67% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Get Highwoods Properties alerts:

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. ValuEngine upgraded shares of Highwoods Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 22nd. Zacks Investment Research cut shares of Highwoods Properties from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 20th. Wells Fargo & Co lifted their price objective on shares of Highwoods Properties from $49.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 19th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Highwoods Properties from $52.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 14th. Finally, SunTrust Banks set a $51.00 price objective on shares of Highwoods Properties and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. The company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.71.

Highwoods Properties stock opened at $49.67 on Thursday. Highwoods Properties Inc has a fifty-two week low of $41.34 and a fifty-two week high of $53.34. The stock has a market cap of $5.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.14, a PEG ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.15.

Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.86 by ($0.37). Highwoods Properties had a return on equity of 8.96% and a net margin of 27.68%. The firm had revenue of $178.79 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $178.37 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. research analysts anticipate that Highwoods Properties Inc will post 3.44 earnings per share for the current year.

In related news, EVP Jeffrey Douglas Miller sold 3,676 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.87, for a total transaction of $186,998.12. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 83,438 shares in the company, valued at $4,244,491.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Highwoods Properties Company Profile

Highwoods Properties, Inc, headquartered in Raleigh, is a publicly-traded (NYSE:HIW) real estate investment trust (?REIT?) and a member of the S&P MidCap 400 Index. The Company is a fullyintegrated office REIT that owns, develops, acquires, leases and manages properties primarily in the best business districts (BBDs) of Atlanta, Greensboro, Memphis, Nashville, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa.

See Also: Average Daily Trade Volume Explained

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding HIW? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Highwoods Properties Inc (NYSE:HIW).

Tennant Company Raises Its 2018 Outlook Again

Tennant's (NYSE:TNC) business is on the upswing. The cleaning machine specialist this week announced broad-based sales growth and upgraded its outlook for the second time in fiscal 2018.

More on that brightening operating forecast in a moment. First, here's how the second-quarter headline figures compared to the prior year:

�Metric

Q2 2018

Q2 2017

Year-Over-Year Change

Revenue	$292 million	$271 million	8%
Net income	$12.7 million	($2.6 million)	N/A
EPS	$0.69	($0.15)	N/A

Data source: Tennant. EPS = earnings per share.

What happened this quarter?

Tennant's sales gains beat management's expectations, while its profitability held steady despite rising costs. These wins put the company on track to post significant operating improvements this year compared to 2017.

Image source: Getty Images.

Here are the key highlights of the quarter:

Organic sales grew 5.2% to mark just a slight slowdown from the prior quarter's 6.5%. Demand increased in each of Tennant's geographic regions, but the U.S. market was a standout performer as the company's focus on larger customers paid off and that group delivered robust revenue gains. Reported gross profit margin improved by 2 full percentage points. However, after stripping out a one-time charge in the prior-year period, gross margin actually held steady at 41% of sales. The lack of growth here was pinned on the combination of a shift toward high-volume accounts and rising costs. Research and development spending stayed below management's full-year target due to the timing of new-product releases. That fact, plus a slight drop in reported selling expenses, led to a significant expansion of profitability as operating margin jumped to 6.5% of sales from 3.4% a year ago. What management had to say

"We posted organic revenue growth in every geographic region for the third consecutive quarter," CEO Chris Killingstad said in a press release. "We had revenue growth across all of our channels," he continued, "with particular strength in our strategic [large-volume] accounts."

While noting challenges with respect to labor shortages and rising material costs, the CEO highlighted the company's financial successes during the quarter. "We also made efficient use of our expense structure and substantially improved our cash flow," Killingstad said. Overall, he said executives are "pleased with our progress to date and are confident in the underlying performance of the business."

Looking forward

Citing the "significant momentum" that management sees in its operating results, Tennant boosted its 2018 outlook on both the top and bottom lines. The company now sees organic growth coming in at between 4% and 4.5%. That range stood at 3% to 3.5% in late April.

The target for adjusted earnings rose despite expectations for elevated costs ahead. That goal is now between $117 million and $121 million, up from the prior range of $113 million to $118 million.

Tennant still believes gross profit margin will inch up to 41% of sales, which is higher than last year's 40% but lower than the 43% rate it had reached in previous fiscal years. Its research and development spending, meanwhile, will remain a key priority as the company prepares to innovate around new products like the global rollout of its T7 robotic floor scrubber.

Tesla Earnings Highlight Rapid Model 3 Production Ramp-Up

Electric-car company Tesla's (NASDAQ:TSLA) second-quarter results are out. As expected, revenue soared and losses continued to mount. Beyond the quarter's financial results, Tesla's second-quarter update provided an important glimpse into other important areas, including Model 3 production, a forecast for cash to increase in the second half of the year, and more.

Here's an overview of the results.

Model 3. Image source: Tesla.

Tesla's second-quarter results: The raw numbers

Metric

Q2 2018

Q2 2017

Change

Vehicle deliveries	40,768	22,026	85%
Revenue	$4.0 billion	$2.8 billion	43%
Non-GAAP EPS	($3.06)	($1.33)	N/A
GAAP EPS	($4.22)	($2.04)	N/A

Data source: Tesla's second-quarter shareholder letter.�

Driven primarily by an 85% year-over-year increase in deliveries, Tesla's revenue increased 43% year over year to a record $4 billion. During the quarter, Tesla delivered 40,768 vehicles. Combined Model S and X deliveries amounted to 22,319 units, and Model 3 deliveries were 18,449.

Highlighting how sharp Tesla's ramp-up in Model 3 production and deliveries is, the important vehicle's deliveries increased 125% sequentially.

Tesla's non-GAAP loss per share of $3.06 was wider than its loss of $1.33 in the year-ago quarter, but it was narrower than its non-GAAP loss per share of $3.35 in Q1. Tesla's GAAP loss per share widened from a loss of $2.04 in the year-ago quarter to a loss of $4.22 in Q2, but this loss was nearly in line with its $4.19 loss per share in Q1.

Highlights

Tesla highlighted a range of important updates on its business in its second-quarter shareholder letter, including the following:

Tesla's automotive gross margin was 20.6% in Q2, up from 19.7% in the first quarter of 2018. Non-GAAP automotive gross margin was 21%, up from 18.8% in Q1. Model 3 gross margin went from negative in Q1 to "slightly positive in Q2, even though we were still ramping production and did not yet deliver any All-Wheel-Drive or performance models," Tesla said in its second-quarter shareholder letter. Tesla's Model 3 margin improvements were due to "dramatic reductions in manufacturing costs through lower labor hours per unit, reduction in ramp cost, higher leverage of fixed costs, and lower material costs." Tesla's Gigafactory battery production achieved an annualized production run rate of about 20 gigawatt hours, "making it the highest-volume battery plant in the world by a significant margin," Tesla said. Cash outflow from operating activities narrowed from $398 million in Q1 to $130 million in Q2. Model 3 gross profit when excluding non-cash items was positive for the first time. Negative free cash flow narrowed from $1.05 billion in Q1 to $738 million in Q2. Tesla maintained its recently achieved production rate of 7,000 vehicles per week (5,000 Model 3s and 2,000 combined Model S and X) "multiple times" during July. Looking ahead

Management believes the second half of the year will be far better than the first, driven by soaring Model 3 production and profitability.

Expecting to achieve a Model 3 production rate of 6,000 units per week by the end of August, management anticipates seeing Model 3 production rise from 28,578 units�in Q2 to 50,000 to 55,000 units in Q3. Model 3 deliveries are expected to be even higher during the period.

As Model 3 production and deliveries increase, Tesla expects to achieve improved economies of scale. Management said it expects a Model 3 gross margin of 15% in Q3 and about 20% in Q4. As a result, Tesla still expects to achieve GAAP profitability in Q3 and Q4 and believes its $2.2 billion in cash and cash equivalents will increase in both quarters.

Longer-term, Tesla says it's aiming to achieve a Model 3 production rate of 10,000 units per week sometime next year.