Citigroup Upgrades SL Green Realty (NYSE:SLG) to “Buy”

SL Green Realty (NYSE:SLG) was upgraded by investment analysts at Citigroup from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a $70.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $65.00. Citigroup’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 6.53% from the stock’s previous close.

SLG has been the subject of a number of other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on SL Green Realty from $70.00 to $69.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on SL Green Realty from $74.00 to $73.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Wall Street Zen downgraded SL Green Realty from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 24th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on SL Green Realty from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating on shares of SL Green Realty in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $67.57.

SL Green Realty Price Performance

NYSE SLG opened at $65.71 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $58.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $58.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.69 billion, a P/E ratio of -121.68 and a beta of 1.74. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98. SL Green Realty has a 52 week low of $45.15 and a 52 week high of $82.81.

SL Green Realty (NYSE:SLG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.37 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $147.54 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $171.24 million. SL Green Realty had a negative return on equity of 1.19% and a negative net margin of 2.21%.The firm’s revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.05 EPS. SL Green Realty has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.650-5.950 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that SL Green Realty will post 5.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Carol N. Brown sold 937 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.09, for a total transaction of $59,115.33. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 5.04% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of SL Green Realty

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in SL Green Realty in the first quarter worth $87,878,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in SL Green Realty in the second quarter worth $55,947,000. Prudential Financial Inc. increased its stake in SL Green Realty by 104.1% in the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 1,622,594 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $100,439,000 after purchasing an additional 827,407 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in SL Green Realty by 663.4% in the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 513,556 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $31,789,000 after purchasing an additional 446,283 shares during the period. Finally, BROOKFIELD Corp ON purchased a new stake in SL Green Realty in the second quarter worth $18,695,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.96% of the company’s stock.

About SL Green Realty

3SL Green Realty Corp., Manhattan’s largest office landlord, is a fully integrated real estate investment trust, or REIT, that is focused primarily on acquiring, managing and maximizing value of Manhattan commercial properties. As of June 30, 2022, SL Green held interests in 64 buildings totaling 34.4 million square feet.