Short Interest in Independence Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:IRT) Rises By 5.5%

Independence Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:IRT – Get Rating) saw a significant increase in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,990,000 shares, an increase of 5.5% from the January 31st total of 5,680,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,890,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.2 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Independence Realty Trust

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund boosted its position in Independence Realty Trust by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 64,627 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,081,000 after buying an additional 3,027 shares during the period. Strategic Wealth Advisors Group LLC purchased a new stake in Independence Realty Trust during the 3rd quarter valued at $306,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its position in Independence Realty Trust by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 184,644 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,089,000 after buying an additional 5,642 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in Independence Realty Trust by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,445,975 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $57,651,000 after buying an additional 137,043 shares during the period. Finally, Moors & Cabot Inc. boosted its position in Independence Realty Trust by 78.4% during the 3rd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 21,139 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $354,000 after buying an additional 9,288 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.01% of the company’s stock.

Independence Realty Trust Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:IRT opened at $17.31 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $18.07 and its 200-day moving average price is $17.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.66, a PEG ratio of 7.83 and a beta of 1.00. Independence Realty Trust has a one year low of $15.04 and a one year high of $28.42.

Independence Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 30th were paid a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 29th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.24%. Independence Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 105.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IRT has been the topic of several analyst reports. JMP Securities initiated coverage on shares of Independence Realty Trust in a report on Monday, January 30th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Independence Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $22.00 to $19.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 4th. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Independence Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $20.00 to $17.00 in a research note on Monday, January 2nd. TheStreet upgraded shares of Independence Realty Trust from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 15th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Independence Realty Trust from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.81.

Independence Realty Trust Company Profile

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Independence Realty Trust, Inc is a real estate investment trust, which acquires, owns, operates, improves and manages multifamily apartment communities across non-gateway U.S. markets. It aims to provide stockholders risk-adjusted returns through diligent portfolio management, operational performance and consistent return of capital through distributions and capital appreciation.