Independence Realty Trust, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.16 (NYSE:IRT)

Independence Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:IRT) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 16th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 0.16 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, January 17th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.97%.

Independence Realty Trust has increased its dividend by an average of 4.7% annually over the last three years. Independence Realty Trust has a payout ratio of 237.0% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect Independence Realty Trust to earn $1.21 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 52.9%.

Independence Realty Trust Stock Performance

Shares of IRT stock opened at $21.54 on Tuesday. Independence Realty Trust has a 52 week low of $14.07 and a 52 week high of $22.26. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $20.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $19.72. The firm has a market cap of $4.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 79.78, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 1.19.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on IRT. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Independence Realty Trust from $18.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Independence Realty Trust from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $19.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Friday, November 15th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Independence Realty Trust from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, JMP Securities increased their price objective on Independence Realty Trust from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.43.

About Independence Realty Trust

Independence Realty Trust, Inc (NYSE: IRT) is a real estate investment trust that owns and operates multifamily communities, across non-gateway U.S. markets including Atlanta, GA, Dallas, TX, Denver, CO, Columbus, OH, Indianapolis, IN, Raleigh-Durham, NC, Oklahoma City, OK, Nashville, TN, Houston, TX, and Tampa, FL.