AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE:AVB) Shares Sold by Quest Partners LLC

Quest Partners LLC lessened its holdings in shares of AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE:AVB) by 37.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,021 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 2,985 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC’s holdings in AvalonBay Communities were worth $1,131,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in AvalonBay Communities by 0.7% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,074,269 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $429,145,000 after acquiring an additional 13,631 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its holdings in AvalonBay Communities by 14.4% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,980,675 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $367,534,000 after acquiring an additional 249,400 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in AvalonBay Communities by 11.9% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,183,121 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $244,776,000 after acquiring an additional 126,055 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in AvalonBay Communities by 6.1% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 521,815 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $96,781,000 after acquiring an additional 29,953 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in AvalonBay Communities by 6.2% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 461,937 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $95,570,000 after purchasing an additional 26,859 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.61% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on AVB. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $234.00 to $233.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $225.00 to $229.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $213.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $206.00 to $249.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $222.00 to $244.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 26th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $226.88.

AvalonBay Communities Stock Performance

NYSE:AVB opened at $228.14 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $226.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $213.38. AvalonBay Communities, Inc. has a 1-year low of $169.37 and a 1-year high of $236.26. 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 firm has a market cap of $32.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.97.

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.61 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.71 by ($0.10). AvalonBay Communities had a net margin of 36.20% and a return on equity of 8.84%. The firm had revenue of $734.31 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $731.67 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.66 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that AvalonBay Communities, Inc. will post 11.04 EPS for the current year.

AvalonBay Communities Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a $1.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.98%. AvalonBay Communities’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 93.02%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AvalonBay Communities news, Director Timothy J. Naughton sold 2,261 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.78, for a total transaction of $528,576.58. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 111,436 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,051,508.08. The trade was a 1.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

AvalonBay Communities Profile

As of December 31, 2023, the Company owned or held a direct or indirect ownership interest in 299 apartment communities containing 90,669 apartment homes in 12 states and the District of Columbia, of which 18 communities were under development. The Company is an equity REIT in the business of developing, redeveloping, acquiring and managing apartment communities in leading metropolitan areas in New England, the New York/New Jersey Metro area, the Mid-Atlantic, the Pacific Northwest, and Northern and Southern California, as well as in the Company's expansion regions of Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte, North Carolina, Southeast Florida, Dallas and Austin, Texas, and Denver, Colorado.