AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE:AVB) Declares $1.70 Quarterly Dividend

AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE:AVB) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 14th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of 1.70 per share by the real estate investment trust on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.98%.

AvalonBay Communities has increased its dividend payment by an average of 1.2% per year over the last three years. AvalonBay Communities has a dividend payout ratio of 121.6% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. 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 Trading Down 2.2 %

NYSE AVB opened at $227.93 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $226.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $212.05. AvalonBay Communities has a 12 month low of $166.60 and a 12 month 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 2.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.18, a PEG ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.97.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on AVB shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $222.00 to $244.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on AvalonBay Communities from $212.00 to $247.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Scotiabank decreased their price target on AvalonBay Communities from $244.00 to $241.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. UBS Group raised their target price on AvalonBay Communities from $210.00 to $228.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Zelman & Associates raised AvalonBay Communities to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AvalonBay Communities presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $226.88.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Timothy J. Naughton sold 23,697 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.47, for a total transaction of $5,532,538.59. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 87,239 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,367,689.33. The trade was a 21.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

AvalonBay Communities Company 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.