Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $1.52 (NYSE:MAA)

Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. (NYSE:MAA) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, March 18th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of 1.515 per share by the real estate investment trust on Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $6.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.74%.

Mid-America Apartment Communities has increased its dividend by an average of 12.6% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 16 years. Mid-America Apartment Communities has a payout ratio of 140.0% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities analysts expect Mid-America Apartment Communities to earn $9.22 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.06 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 65.7%.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Stock Down 1.5 %

NYSE MAA opened at $162.07 on Wednesday. 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 market capitalization of $18.95 billion, a PE ratio of 36.18, a PEG ratio of 3.72 and a beta of 0.90. Mid-America Apartment Communities has a 1 year low of $123.73 and a 1 year high of $173.38. The business’s 50-day moving average is $157.43 and its 200 day moving average is $157.46.

Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Mid-America Apartment Communities will post 8.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on MAA. Scotiabank raised Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $173.00 to $182.00 in a research report on Friday, February 14th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Mid-America Apartment Communities from $155.00 to $159.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley raised Mid-America Apartment Communities from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $159.50 to $168.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Mid-America Apartment Communities from $152.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mid-America Apartment Communities currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $168.43.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Company 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.