Short Interest in Independence Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:IRT) Expands By 19.8%

Independence Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:IRT) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 12,092,966 shares, an increase of 19.8% from the February 26th total of 10,095,983 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,487,656 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.9 days. Approximately 5.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Independence Realty Trust by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,235,002 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $580,948,000 after acquiring an additional 250,549 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Independence Realty Trust by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,074,813 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $230,705,000 after purchasing an additional 76,635 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Independence Realty Trust by 0.3% during the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 9,139,506 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $161,678,000 after purchasing an additional 30,701 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Independence Realty Trust by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,445,967 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $112,690,000 after purchasing an additional 148,449 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Independence Realty Trust by 209.5% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,649,829 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $98,759,000 after purchasing an additional 3,824,512 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

IRT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Independence Realty Trust from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Independence Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $18.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Independence Realty Trust from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Independence Realty Trust from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $20.00 to $22.00 in a report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Independence Realty Trust from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.61.

Independence Realty Trust Stock Down 0.2%

NYSE IRT opened at $14.87 on Thursday. Independence Realty Trust has a twelve month low of $14.63 and a twelve month high of $21.56. The company has a market cap of $3.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.99. The business’s fifty day moving average is $16.19 and its 200 day moving average is $16.54.

Independence Realty Trust (NYSE:IRT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32. The business had revenue of $167.13 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $170.26 million. Independence Realty Trust had a return on equity of 1.58% and a net margin of 8.60%.Independence Realty Trust’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Independence Realty Trust will post 1.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Independence Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 27th will be paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 27th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.6%. Independence Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently 283.33%.

Independence Realty Trust Company Profile

Independence Realty Trust is a self-administered equity real estate investment trust that acquires, redevelops and manages multi-family communities. The company focuses on workforce housing, targeting Class A and B garden-style apartments in suburban and urban infill locations. Its core activities include sourcing value-add acquisitions, overseeing property renovations and delivering in-house property management services to optimize rental income and occupancy levels.

Headquartered in Wayne, Pennsylvania, Independence Realty Trust maintains a geographically diverse portfolio across several high-growth U.S.