Norges Bank Acquires New Stake in American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH)

Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 21,967,376 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $822,019,000. Norges Bank owned 5.95% of American Homes 4 Rent at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AMH. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of American Homes 4 Rent by 19.9% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,589 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $138,000 after purchasing an additional 596 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC acquired a new stake in American Homes 4 Rent during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $703,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new position in American Homes 4 Rent in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $630,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its stake in shares of American Homes 4 Rent by 3,136.2% in the third quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 1,521 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 1,474 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its position in shares of American Homes 4 Rent by 136.0% during the third quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 5,900 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $227,000 after acquiring an additional 3,400 shares during the period. 91.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AMH. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on American Homes 4 Rent from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Morgan Stanley raised American Homes 4 Rent from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $39.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $41.00 target price on shares of American Homes 4 Rent in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Scotiabank cut American Homes 4 Rent from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $38.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of American Homes 4 Rent from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $40.29.

American Homes 4 Rent Price Performance

AMH opened at $37.49 on Friday. American Homes 4 Rent has a 1 year low of $34.01 and a 1 year high of $41.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.76. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.88 billion, a PE ratio of 34.71, a P/E/G ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 0.77.

American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $436.59 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $442.02 million. American Homes 4 Rent had a net margin of 23.86% and a return on equity of 5.33%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that American Homes 4 Rent will post 1.85 EPS for the current year.

American Homes 4 Rent Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from American Homes 4 Rent’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. American Homes 4 Rent’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 111.11%.

American Homes 4 Rent Company Profile

American Homes 4 Rent operates as a real estate investment trust. It engages in the acquisition, renovation, leasing, and operating of single-family homes as rental properties. The company was founded by Bradley Wayne Hughes, Sr. on October 19, 2012 and is headquartered in Las Vegas, NV.