AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE:AVB) Plans Dividend Increase – $1.75 Per Share

AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE:AVB) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 5th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 1.75 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $7.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.12%. This is an increase from AvalonBay Communities’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.70.

AvalonBay Communities has increased its dividend payment by an average of 2.3% annually over the last three years. AvalonBay Communities has a payout ratio of 112.6% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect AvalonBay Communities to earn $11.57 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 58.8%.

AvalonBay Communities Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of AvalonBay Communities stock opened at $224.27 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.64 and a quick ratio of 1.64. The stock has a market cap of $31.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.68, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $221.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $221.97. AvalonBay Communities has a 1 year low of $169.37 and a 1 year high of $239.29.

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.83 by ($0.03). AvalonBay Communities had a net margin of 36.20% and a return on equity of 8.84%. As a group, research analysts expect that AvalonBay Communities will post 11.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Timothy J. Naughton sold 23,697 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.47, for a total value of $5,532,538.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 87,239 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,367,689.33. The trade was a 21.36 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on AVB shares. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of AvalonBay Communities from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $236.00 to $223.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $243.00 to $230.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $244.00 to $241.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on AvalonBay Communities from $234.00 to $233.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Mizuho raised AvalonBay Communities from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $239.00 to $242.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, AvalonBay Communities presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $234.60.

About AvalonBay Communities

AvalonBay Communities, Inc is a real estate investment trust, which engages in the development, acquisition, ownership, and operation of multifamily communities. It operates through the following segments: Same Store, Other Stabilized, and Development or Redevelopment. The Same Store segment refers to the operating communities that were owned and had stabilized occupancy.