Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Purchases 85 Shares of AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE:AVB)

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE:AVB) by 2.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,392 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in AvalonBay Communities were worth $746,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its stake in shares of AvalonBay Communities by 29.6% in the 4th quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 1,260 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $277,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in AvalonBay Communities by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,060,497 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $914,627,000 after purchasing an additional 55,588 shares during the last quarter. West Oak Capital LLC boosted its position in AvalonBay Communities by 875.3% in the fourth quarter. West Oak Capital LLC now owns 15,800 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $356,000 after buying an additional 14,180 shares in the last quarter. Portfolio Design Labs LLC grew its stake in shares of AvalonBay Communities by 27.0% during the fourth quarter. Portfolio Design Labs LLC now owns 22,356 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,918,000 after buying an additional 4,747 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Savant Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of AvalonBay Communities by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 1,264 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $278,000 after buying an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. 92.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AVB. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on AvalonBay Communities from $270.00 to $265.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Zelman & Associates upgraded AvalonBay Communities from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $226.00 to $229.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of AvalonBay Communities from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $236.00 to $223.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of AvalonBay Communities from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $247.00 to $262.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AvalonBay Communities presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $238.64.

AvalonBay Communities Stock Performance

Shares of AvalonBay Communities stock opened at $213.18 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $217.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $222.58. AvalonBay Communities, Inc. has a 1-year low of $177.40 and a 1-year high of $239.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The company has a market cap of $30.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.09, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.00.

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.80 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.83 by ($0.03). AvalonBay Communities had a return on equity of 9.15% and a net margin of 37.13%. As a group, analysts anticipate that AvalonBay Communities, Inc. will post 11.48 EPS for the current year.

AvalonBay Communities Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $1.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This is a positive change from AvalonBay Communities’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.70. This represents a $7.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.28%. AvalonBay Communities’s dividend payout ratio is currently 92.23%.

About AvalonBay Communities

AvalonBay Communities, Inc is a real estate investment trust, which engages in the development, acquisition, ownership, and operation of multifamily communities. It operates through the following segments: Same Store, Other Stabilized, and Development or Redevelopment. The Same Store segment refers to the operating communities that were owned and had stabilized occupancy.