Mid-America Apartment Communities’ (MAA) “Market Outperform” Rating Reiterated at JMP Securities

JMP Securities reiterated their market outperform rating on shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) in a research note published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. JMP Securities currently has a $160.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on MAA. Mizuho lowered their target price 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. KeyCorp upgraded Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $180.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com lowered Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Mid-America Apartment Communities from $174.00 to $173.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Mid-America Apartment Communities from $169.00 to $165.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Mid-America Apartment Communities presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $166.92.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MAA opened at $148.25 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 0.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $156.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $153.94. Mid-America Apartment Communities has a 1-year low of $121.51 and a 1-year high of $167.39. The stock has a market cap of $17.33 billion, a PE ratio of 33.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.91.

Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.18 by ($1.20). The business had revenue of $551.13 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $548.53 million. Mid-America Apartment Communities had a return on equity of 8.38% and a net margin of 23.84%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.29 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Mid-America Apartment Communities will post 8.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.515 per share. This is a positive change from Mid-America Apartment Communities’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.47. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.09%. Mid-America Apartment Communities’s payout ratio is presently 136.79%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MAA. State Street Corp lifted its position in Mid-America Apartment Communities by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,731,712 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,228,569,000 after buying an additional 65,696 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Mid-America Apartment Communities by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,141,138 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $497,624,000 after buying an additional 48,168 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Mid-America Apartment Communities by 17.5% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,633,160 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $375,515,000 after buying an additional 393,067 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Mid-America Apartment Communities by 6.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,716,628 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $244,803,000 after buying an additional 97,672 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its position in Mid-America Apartment Communities by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 1,644,322 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $234,497,000 after buying an additional 44,621 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.60% of the company’s stock.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Company Profile

MAA, an S&P 500 company, is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on delivering full-cycle and superior investment performance for shareholders through the ownership, management, acquisition, development and redevelopment of quality apartment communities primarily in the Southeast, Southwest and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.