Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. (NYSE:MAA) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. (NYSE:MAA) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have assigned a hold recommendation and twelve have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $169.50.

Several research analysts recently issued reports on MAA shares. Raymond James cut shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $185.00 to $175.00 in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. Truist Financial cut their price target on shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities from $174.00 to $171.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $148.00 to $190.00 in a report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, JMP Securities increased their target price on shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Price Performance

Shares of MAA opened at $151.74 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $17.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.72 and a beta of 0.78. Mid-America Apartment Communities has a fifty-two week low of $136.77 and a fifty-two week high of $173.38. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $157.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $157.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a current ratio of 0.08.

Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $549.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $551.21 million. Mid-America Apartment Communities had a net margin of 24.03% and a return on equity of 8.53%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.22 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Mid-America Apartment Communities will post 8.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be given a dividend of $1.515 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 15th. This represents a $6.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.99%. Mid-America Apartment Communities’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 126.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Amber Fairbanks sold 173 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.85, for a total transaction of $28,865.05. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 3,012 shares in the company, valued at approximately $502,552.20. This trade represents a 5.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO H Eric Bolton, Jr. sold 4,358 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.24, for a total transaction of $724,473.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 324,171 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,890,187.04. This trade represents a 1.33% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 7,313 shares of company stock worth $1,171,707. 1.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Mid-America Apartment Communities

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Mid-America Apartment Communities by 107.1% during the first quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 176 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares during the last quarter. Financial Network Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities in the 1st quarter valued at $29,000. AlphaQuest LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities in the 1st quarter valued at $34,000. CoreCap Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities by 94.9% in the 4th quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 230 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ransom Advisory Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities in the 1st quarter valued at $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.60% of the company’s stock.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Company Profile

Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc is a real estate investment trust, which engages in the operation, acquisition, and development of apartment communities. It operates through the Same Store and Non-Same Store segments. The Same Store Communities segment represents those apartment communities that have been owned and stabilized for at least 12 months as of the first day of the calendar year.