Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. (NYSE:MAA) Shares Sold by M&T Bank Corp

M&T Bank Corp lowered its stake in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. (NYSE:MAA) by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 14,364 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 306 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Mid-America Apartment Communities were worth $2,219,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MAA. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities by 31.2% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,021 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $162,000 after buying an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities by 3.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 143,909 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $22,867,000 after buying an additional 4,618 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. grew its position in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities by 22,730.8% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 5,936 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $943,000 after buying an additional 5,910 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities by 56.6% during the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 99,686 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $15,840,000 after buying an additional 36,048 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MAA. KeyCorp upgraded Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $180.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com upgraded Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays raised their price objective on Mid-America Apartment Communities from $152.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Mid-America Apartment Communities from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $159.50 to $168.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $167.00.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MAA opened at $166.31 on Monday. Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $123.73 and a fifty-two week high of $173.38. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $155.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $157.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market cap of $19.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.72 and a beta of 0.90.

Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by $1.19. Mid-America Apartment Communities had a net margin of 24.03% and a return on equity of 8.53%. Equities analysts expect that Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. will post 8.84 EPS for the current year.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th were paid a dividend of $1.515 per share. This is a boost from Mid-America Apartment Communities’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.47. This represents a $6.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.64%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, January 15th. Mid-America Apartment Communities’s payout ratio is currently 135.27%.

About Mid-America Apartment Communities

Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc is a real estate investment trust, which engages in the operation, acquisition, and development of apartment communities. It operates through the Same Store and Non-Same Store segments. The Same Store Communities segment represents those apartment communities that have been owned and stabilized for at least 12 months as of the first day of the calendar year.