Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) Rating Increased to Buy at Jefferies Financial Group

Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) was upgraded by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage presently has a $190.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $148.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 14.25% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on MAA. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Mid-America Apartment Communities from $158.00 to $161.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $159.50 to $168.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. KeyCorp raised shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $180.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on Mid-America Apartment Communities from $163.00 to $159.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $168.10.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Price Performance

MAA opened at $166.31 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $155.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $157.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.44 billion, a PE ratio of 37.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.72 and a beta of 0.90. Mid-America Apartment Communities has a 52 week low of $123.73 and a 52 week high of $173.38. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.23 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by $1.19. Mid-America Apartment Communities had a return on equity of 8.53% and a net margin of 24.03%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Mid-America Apartment Communities will post 8.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MAA. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Mid-America Apartment Communities in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Activest Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities in the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. CoreCap Advisors LLC grew 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 acquiring an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc increased its position in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities by 37.2% in the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 251 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new stake in Mid-America Apartment Communities during the third quarter worth about $45,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.60% of the company’s stock.

About Mid-America Apartment Communities

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.