Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. (NYSE:MAA) Shares Sold by National Pension Service

National Pension Service lessened its holdings in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. (NYSE:MAA) by 7.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 176,699 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 14,866 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned approximately 0.15% of Mid-America Apartment Communities worth $27,312,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its stake in Mid-America Apartment Communities by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 7,978 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,233,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its stake in Mid-America Apartment Communities by 37.2% during the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 251 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Mid-America Apartment Communities by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 11,220 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,704,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC boosted its stake in Mid-America Apartment Communities by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC now owns 4,828 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $746,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in Mid-America Apartment Communities by 30.5% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 321 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on MAA. StockNews.com upgraded Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $160.00 price target on shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Scotiabank upgraded Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $173.00 to $182.00 in a report on Friday, February 14th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Mid-America Apartment Communities from $174.00 to $164.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price target on Mid-America Apartment Communities from $163.00 to $159.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Mid-America Apartment Communities has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $167.00.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Stock Performance

NYSE MAA opened at $168.29 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $19.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.72 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.08. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $154.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $156.67. Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. has a 1-year low of $123.73 and a 1-year high of $169.05.

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

Mid-America Apartment Communities Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th were given a $1.515 dividend. This is an increase from Mid-America Apartment Communities’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.47. This represents a $6.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, January 15th. Mid-America Apartment Communities’s payout ratio is currently 135.27%.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Profile

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.