AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) Releases FY24 Earnings Guidance

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) updated its FY24 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $10.71-11.11 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.86. AvalonBay Communities also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 10.710-11.110 EPS.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AVB has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays raised AvalonBay Communities from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and increased their target price for the company from $194.00 to $204.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. KeyCorp reiterated a sector weight rating on shares of AvalonBay Communities in a research report on Friday, January 5th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of AvalonBay Communities from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and upped their price objective for the company from $175.00 to $191.50 in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Wolfe Research cut shares of AvalonBay Communities from an outperform rating to a peer perform rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on shares of AvalonBay Communities in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. They set a buy rating and a $206.00 price target for the company. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AvalonBay Communities has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $196.78.

AvalonBay Communities Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:AVB traded up $0.13 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $191.45. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 945,647 shares, compared to its average volume of 712,005. AvalonBay Communities has a 12-month low of $160.45 and a 12-month high of $198.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.49, a PEG ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 0.92. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $182.66 and a 200-day moving average of $178.67. The company has a quick ratio of 1.44, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.73 by ($1.03). The business had revenue of $704.71 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $701.67 million. AvalonBay Communities had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 8.10%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.59 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that AvalonBay Communities will post 10.84 earnings per share for the current year.

AvalonBay Communities Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a $1.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.55%. This is a boost from AvalonBay Communities’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.65. AvalonBay Communities’s payout ratio is presently 101.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AvalonBay Communities news, CFO Kevin P. O’shea sold 5,000 shares of AvalonBay Communities stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.65, for a total value of $928,250.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 31,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,812,330.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Kevin P. O’shea sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.65, for a total transaction of $928,250.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,308 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,812,330.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Joanne M. Lockridge sold 1,750 shares of AvalonBay Communities stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.10, for a total value of $323,925.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 21,907 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,985.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.42% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About AvalonBay Communities

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.