AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) Updates Q2 Earnings Guidance

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) updated its second quarter earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $2.63-2.73 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $2.70. AvalonBay Communities also updated its FY24 guidance to $10.71-11.11 EPS.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a neutral rating and set a $191.00 price objective on shares of AvalonBay Communities in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Piper Sandler reiterated an overweight rating and set a $207.00 price objective on shares of AvalonBay Communities in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a sector perform rating and set a $185.00 price objective on shares of AvalonBay Communities in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Barclays upgraded AvalonBay Communities from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $194.00 to $204.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised AvalonBay Communities from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $175.00 to $191.50 in a report on Monday, February 26th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $196.78.

AvalonBay Communities Stock Down 0.0 %

AvalonBay Communities stock traded down $0.04 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $191.30. 1,073,207 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 814,883. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock has a market cap of $27.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 0.92. AvalonBay Communities has a 1-year low of $160.45 and a 1-year high of $198.65. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $182.10 and a two-hundred day moving average of $178.43.

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.70 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.73 by ($1.03). The business had revenue of $704.71 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $701.67 million. AvalonBay Communities had a return on equity of 7.98% and a net margin of 33.56%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.59 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that AvalonBay Communities will post 10.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AvalonBay Communities Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a $1.70 dividend. This is an increase from AvalonBay Communities’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.65. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. AvalonBay Communities’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 103.82%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Joanne M. Lockridge sold 1,750 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 21,907 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,985.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Kevin P. O’shea sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.65, for a total value of $928,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 31,308 shares in the company, valued at $5,812,330.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Joanne M. Lockridge sold 1,750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.10, for a total transaction of $323,925.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 currently owned by company 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.