At a glance
Cousins Properties Incorporated is worth $4.69B, about 119 times its fiscal 2025 earnings. Revenue grew 16.0% to $993.8M in fiscal 2025, with 4.1% kept as profit; over 5 years it has grown 6.1% a year. It pays a 4.49% dividend yield, and returned $980.7M to shareholders in dividends and buybacks over FY2021–FY2025. The stock returned +13.7% over the past year with dividends reinvested and −1.8% a year over five years, against +11.5% and +11.7% for the S&P 500. At its worst it fell 46.9% in the 2020 crash (S&P 500: 33.7%) and 45.5% in the 2022 bear market (S&P 500: 24.5%).
The business in plain English
Cousins Properties is an Atlanta-based real estate investment trust (REIT). A REIT is a company that owns income-producing property and must pay out most of its taxable income as dividends. Cousins develops, acquires, leases and manages mainly Class A office buildings, the top tier of offices. It focuses on seven Sun Belt cities: Austin, Atlanta, Charlotte, Tampa, Phoenix, Dallas and Nashville. Cousins calls these buildings "lifestyle offices": modern or modernized buildings with amenities that help employers recruit and keep staff. The company says this is its own label, not an industry standard.
Most of its money comes from rent paid by the businesses that lease its office space. Revenue was about $994 million in fiscal 2025, which ended December 31, 2025. That was up 16% from the year before. Cousins reports one main segment, office, which it tracks by city. Its annual report does not break revenue down by city. Its stabilized office portfolio, meaning buildings past their first lease-up, was 90.7% leased as of December 31, 2025.
Cousins also acquires, builds and lends. During 2025 it bought The Link, a 292,000-square-foot office building in Uptown Dallas, for $218.0 million. It owns half of the joint venture developing Neuhoff in Nashville, which has 450,000 square feet of office and retail space and 542 apartments. Its share of the expected project costs is $294.6 million. It also makes real estate loans. Two of them, for $138.0 million and $12.8 million, were repaid in full during 2025.
Price history
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CUZ +13.7% over the year to Oct 28, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
Latest results
- In Q3 FY2026 (ended Sep 30, 2026), revenue was $259.4M, up 4.5% from a year earlier, and net income was $17.0M (+97.9%).
- For fiscal 2025, revenue was $993.8M (+16.0% year over year; +6.1% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 4.1% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2020–FY2025) | +6.1% good |
|---|---|
| Operating margin | 67.8% good |
| Free cash flow margin | 13.6% good |
| Return on equity (FY2025) | 0.9% weak |
| Return on assets (FY2025) | 0.5% weak |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | $740.3M | $237.3M | — |
| FY2021 | $755.1M | $278.6M | — |
| FY2022 | $762.3M | $166.8M | $22.9M |
| FY2023 | $802.9M | $83.0M | $88.8M |
| FY2024 | $856.8M | $46.0M | $147.5M |
| FY2025 | $993.8M | $40.5M | $135.0M |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $4.69B |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 118.8 |
| Dividend yield | 4.49% |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Market value at each year end
Cousins Properties Incorporated’s market value went from $4.46B at the end of 2016 to $4.69B on Oct 28, 2026, up 5%; since the end of 2025 it is up 8%.
Show as a table
| Year end | Market value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 28, 2026 | $4.69B | +8.4% |
| 2025 | $4.33B | -7.1% |
| 2024 | $4.66B | +26.1% |
| 2023 | $3.70B | -3.5% |
| 2022 | $3.83B | -36.1% |
| 2021 | $5.99B | +20.3% |
| 2020 | $4.98B | -17.7% |
| 2019 | $6.05B | +36.6% |
| 2018 | $4.43B | -14.5% |
| 2017 | $5.18B | +16.1% |
| 2016 | $4.46B |
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CUZ price data to Oct 28, 2026 | +16.1% | +13.7% | +22.6% | -1.8% | +3.3% |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | +16.1% |
| 2025 | -12.1% |
| 2024 | +32.6% |
| 2023 | +2.1% |
| 2022 | -34.7% |
| 2021 | +23.3% |
| 2020 | -14.8% |
| 2019 | +34.6% |
| 2018 | -12.6% |
| 2017 | +12.5% |
| 2016 | +31.3% |
| 2015 | -14.8% |
| 2014 | +14.0% |
| 2013 | +25.8% |
| 2012 | +33.7% |
| 2011 | -21.0% |
| 2010 | +11.2% |
| 2009 | -43.2% |
| 2008 | -35.8% |
| 2007 | -36.2% |
| 2006 | +42.0% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Lost 77.8% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 78.5%, not recovered by the end of the data |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Lost 43.6% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 46.9%, back to its old high 19 months after the low |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Lost 43.6% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 45.5%, not recovered by the end of the data |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-10-30 to 2026-10-30 (24 read): 0 open-market purchases and 1 sales ($178K).
| Date | Insider | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 20, 2026 | Jeffrey D Symes SVP, Chief Accounting Officer | sell | $178K |
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| BlackRock, Inc. | 11.8% | Mar 31, 2025 |
| Vanguard Portfolio Management | 9.93% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| PRINCIPAL REAL ESTATE INVESTORS LLC | 5.5% | Jun 30, 2025 |
| Vanguard Capital Management | 5.36% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| STATE STREET CORPORATION | 5% | Dec 31, 2025 |
| APG Asset Management US Inc. | 4.7% | Dec 31, 2024 |
ETFs with the most weight in CUZ
| DESK VanEck Office and Commercial REIT ETF | 9.73% |
| REIT ALPS Active REIT ETF | 2.97% |
| JPRE JPMorgan Realty Income ETF | 1.79% |
| BLDG Cambria Global Real Estate ETF | 1.15% |
| XMVM Invesco S&P MidCap Value with Momentum ETF | 0.92% |
| CVY Invesco Zacks Multi-Asset Income ETF | 0.53% |
| XMMO Invesco S&P MidCap Momentum ETF | 0.52% |
| BBRE JPMorgan BetaBuilders MSCI US REIT ETF | 0.43% |
What could go wrong
- Companies may need less office space. Working from home, open-plan layouts and co-working space can shrink tenant demand. New buildings can also flood a market. Because Cousins owns mostly offices, it has little else to soften a slump.
- Big tenants could shrink, leave or fail. Its 20 largest tenants supply a meaningful share of revenue. Tenants may cut space or leave when leases end, and bankruptcies can cancel leases. Refilling space can take free rent and other concessions.
- Development projects can run late or over budget. Projects like Neuhoff in Nashville, which Cousins half-owns through a joint venture, face supply-chain delays, labor shortages and higher construction costs. A partner's money troubles or disputes add more risk.
- Real estate loans could go unpaid. Cousins also lends against property, including mezzanine loans, which rank behind senior mortgages and lose money first if a borrower defaults. Loans can also be repaid early, cutting expected interest income.
- Debt could become costlier or harder to get. Total debt was about $3.7 billion as of June 30, 2026. Loan covenants (rules lenders set) limit flexibility. A credit-rating cut or higher interest rates would make refinancing more expensive.
- Falling property values can force write-downs. If market conditions weaken or Cousins plans an early sale of a building, it may record an impairment. That is an accounting write-down of the property's value, and it reduces reported earnings.
Recent events
- Quarterly results released
- Investor presentation or announcement
- Quarterly results released
- Investor presentation or announcement
- Quarterly results released
- Major agreement signed; New debt or financial obligation
- Investor presentation or announcement
- Major agreement signed; New debt or financial obligation; Other company announcement
- Other company announcement
- Investor presentation or announcement
For income and retirement investors
Cousins pays a sizable dividend but has barely grown it. It paid $1.28 per share in each fiscal year from 2022 through 2025, up from $1.20 in 2020. That works out to about 1.3% growth a year. The yield was 4.49% as of October 28, 2026. In fiscal 2025, dividends equaled about 533% of net income and 160% of free cash flow (cash left after spending on properties). Depreciation, a non-cash charge, makes REIT earnings look low, but the dividend still exceeded free cash flow. Cousins bought back no shares from fiscal 2021 to 2025. Its share count rose 10.7% between October 2021 and July 2026.
The shares have fallen hard in downturns. They dropped 78.5% in the 2008 financial crisis and 45.5% in the 2022 bear market, and had not regained either peak as of October 28, 2026. In the 2020 COVID crash they fell 46.9% and took 19 months to recover. As a single stock, Cousins carries more risk than a diversified fund.
Questions investors ask
How does Cousins Properties make money?
Mostly by renting out office space. Cousins is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, develops and manages mainly Class A office buildings. It focuses on Austin, Atlanta, Charlotte, Tampa, Phoenix, Dallas and Nashville, and collects rent from business tenants. Revenue was about $994 million in fiscal 2025. It also earns interest on some real estate loans. It owns half of a joint venture developing Neuhoff, a Nashville project with offices, shops and 542 apartments.
Does Cousins Properties raise its dividend every year?
No. Cousins paid $1.28 per share in each fiscal year from 2022 through 2025, after $1.20 in 2020 and $1.24 in 2021. So it has no streak of yearly increases. The yield was 4.49% as of October 28, 2026. In fiscal 2025, dividends were about 533% of net income and 160% of free cash flow. That leaves little room for raises unless cash flow grows.
Why is Cousins Properties' P/E ratio so high?
Mainly because its accounting profit is small. The P/E ratio was about 119 as of October 28, 2026, based on fiscal 2025 diluted earnings of $0.24 per share. Property owners deduct large depreciation charges that don't use cash. So REIT investors often look at cash-based measures such as funds from operations (FFO) instead. Still, earnings per share fell every year, from $1.87 in fiscal 2021 to $0.24 in fiscal 2025.
How much debt does Cousins Properties have?
About $3.7 billion as of June 30, 2026. That compares with about $4.5 billion of shareholder equity and $9.0 billion of total assets. Cash was only about $6.7 million. Cousins describes its balance sheet as low-leveraged. During 2025 it issued $500 million of 5.250% notes due 2030. It also repaid $250 million of 3.91% notes when they came due, so its newer borrowing costs more than the debt it retired.
How has Cousins Properties stock performed over the long run?
Unevenly. Based on share price, CUZ gained about 38% over the 10 years to October 28, 2026, or roughly 3.3% a year. It lost about 9% over five years. Over three years it rose 84%, after a 34.7% drop in 2022. The stock fell 12.1% in 2025 and was up 16.1% in 2026 through October 28. Its deepest fall in more than 21 years of price history was 85.1%.