Cousins Properties’ CUZ portfolio of Class A office assets is concentrated in the high-growth markets in the Sun Belt region. The company is witnessing healthy leasing activity due to tenants’ preference for premium office spaces. Its capital-recycling efforts and healthy balance sheet augur well.

Analysts seem positive about this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CUZ’s 2025 funds from operations (FFO) per share has moved 1 cent northward over the past two months to $2.79.

Shares of this office-based real estate investment trust (REIT) company have gained 6.1% over the past month, outperforming the industry’s growth of 1.7%. Given the strength of its fundamentals, there seems to be additional room for growth.Zacks Investment Research

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Factors That Make Cousins Properties Stock a Solid Pick

Solid Portfolio and Diversified Tenant Base: Cousins Properties has an unmatched portfolio of Class A office assets concentrated in the high-growth Sun Belt markets. This region is experiencing a population influx. Amid favorable migration trends and a pro-business environment, corporate relocations and expansions in the Sun Belt markets have gained pace, driving the demand for office space. Properties in these markets are also expected to command higher rents compared with the broader market.

With a significant presence in the best urban submarkets in each city, Cousins Properties has been able to enjoy healthy demand for its properties. The company has a well-diversified, high-end tenant roster with less dependence on a single industry. This enables it to enjoy steady revenues over different economic cycles.

Healthy Leasing Activity: Cousins Properties is witnessing healthy leasing demand for its high-quality, well-placed office properties, as highlighted by the rebound in new leasing volume.

Going forward, with the continuation of inbound migration and significant investments being announced by office occupiers to expand the footprint in the Sun Belt regions, Cousins Properties’ leading trophy portfolio of Class A and highly amenitized office realties across the region is well-positioned to recover faster.

Further, the company is seeing several tenants returning to offices or announcing plans to report to workplaces. This, too, is likely to support office market fundamentals in its markets.

Capital-Recycling Efforts: Cousins Properties’ capital-recycling moves to enhance its portfolio quality with trophy asset acquisitions and opportunistic developments seem encouraging for long-term growth. Its notable development pipeline is likely to deliver meaningful additional annualized net operating income in the upcoming years.

Story Continues

Dispositions have helped the company shed slow-growth assets from its portfolio and redeploy the proceeds for developing and acquiring highly differentiated amenitized properties in the Sun Belt submarkets.

Balance Sheet Strength: Cousins Properties focuses on maintaining a robust balance sheet, with ample liquidity to capitalize on improving market fundamentals. Its debt maturity schedule is well-laddered to efficiently access the unsecured bond market. The company exited the first quarter of 2025 with cash and cash equivalents of $5.3 million. As of March 31, 2025, Cousins Properties had $38.7 million drawn under its credit facility, with the ability to borrow the remaining $961.3 million. Thus, with considerable liquidity and access to capital markets, it enjoys ample flexibility to pursue compelling growth opportunities.

Other Stocks to Consider

Some other top-ranked stocks from the broader REIT sector are CareTrust REIT CTRE and W.P. Carey WPC, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CTRE’s 2025 FFO per share is pegged at $1.78, which indicates year-over-year growth of 18.7%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for WPC’s full-year FFO per share is pinned at $4.88, which calls for an increase of 3.8% from the year-ago period.

Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO) — a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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