Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. (NYSE:MAA) Increases Dividend to $1.53 Per Share

Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. (NYSE:MAA) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of 1.53 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, January 30th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 15th. This is a 1.0% increase from Mid-America Apartment Communities’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.52.

Mid-America Apartment Communities has raised its dividend by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 16 consecutive years. Mid-America Apartment Communities has a payout ratio of 156.2% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Mid-America Apartment Communities to earn $9.22 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.06 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 65.7%.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Stock Performance

Mid-America Apartment Communities stock traded up $0.19 on Thursday, hitting $137.28. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 34,529 shares, compared to its average volume of 908,283. Mid-America Apartment Communities has a one year low of $125.75 and a one year high of $173.38. The firm has a market cap of $16.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $132.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $140.68.

Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.17 by ($0.01). Mid-America Apartment Communities had a net margin of 25.23% and a return on equity of 9.14%. The business had revenue of $554.37 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $557.22 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.21 earnings per share. Mid-America Apartment Communities’s revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. Mid-America Apartment Communities has set its FY 2025 guidance at 8.680-8.800 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 2.170-2.290 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Mid-America Apartment Communities will post 8.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MAA. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Mid-America Apartment Communities from $153.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Scotiabank lowered shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $146.00 to $142.00 in a research note on Friday, December 5th. UBS Group raised Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $142.00 to $132.00 in a research report on Monday, November 10th. BNP Paribas Exane downgraded Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $150.00 target price for the company. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $154.89.

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.