Wells Fargo & Company Cuts AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) Price Target to $191.00

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) had its price objective decreased by Wells Fargo & Company from $193.00 to $191.00 in a research note released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on AVB. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of AvalonBay Communities in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on AvalonBay Communities from $203.00 to $201.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on AvalonBay Communities from $190.00 to $183.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 9th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $192.00 to $191.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $217.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $196.87.

AvalonBay Communities Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AVB opened at $172.46 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $171.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $176.83. The company has a market cap of $23.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.75. AvalonBay Communities has a 12 month low of $160.10 and a 12 month high of $213.34.

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.01. AvalonBay Communities had a return on equity of 8.78% and a net margin of 34.57%.The company had revenue of $767.86 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $766.38 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.80 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AvalonBay Communities will post 11.29 EPS for the current year.

AvalonBay Communities Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st were issued a dividend of $1.78 per share. This is a positive change from AvalonBay Communities’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.75. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 31st. This represents a $7.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.1%. AvalonBay Communities’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 86.94%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its stake in AvalonBay Communities by 18,031.0% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 11,785,150 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $213,677,000 after purchasing an additional 11,720,150 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in AvalonBay Communities by 1.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,537,966 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,858,788,000 after purchasing an additional 92,467 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in AvalonBay Communities during the fourth quarter valued at $1,394,635,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of AvalonBay Communities by 22.4% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,159,950 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $935,551,000 after buying an additional 944,129 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AvalonBay Communities by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,497,047 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $815,360,000 after buying an additional 383,983 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.61% of the company’s stock.

AvalonBay Communities Company Profile

AvalonBay Communities, Inc (NYSE: AVB) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, develops, redevelops and manages multifamily residential properties. The company focuses on professionally managed apartment communities, offering a range of rental housing options and related resident services. As a REIT, AvalonBay’s core activities center on the acquisition and development of apartment assets and the ongoing operations and leasing of those communities.

AvalonBay’s operating activities include ground-up development, strategic redevelopment of existing properties, property and asset management, and on-site leasing and resident services.