Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. (NYSE:MAA) Announces Dividend Increase – $1.52 Per Share

Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. (NYSE:MAA) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 10th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of 1.515 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, January 31st. This represents a $6.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.82%. This is a positive change from Mid-America Apartment Communities’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.47.

Mid-America Apartment Communities has increased its dividend by an average of 11.9% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 15 years. Mid-America Apartment Communities has a dividend payout ratio of 143.8% meaning 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 Mid-America Apartment Communities to earn $9.00 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 65.3%.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Stock Performance

NYSE MAA traded down $0.59 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $158.56. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 474,694 shares, compared to its average volume of 741,533. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $156.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $151.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 0.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. Mid-America Apartment Communities has a 12 month low of $121.51 and a 12 month high of $167.39.

Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.18 by ($1.20). The firm had revenue of $551.13 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $548.53 million. Mid-America Apartment Communities had a net margin of 23.84% and a return on equity of 8.38%. Mid-America Apartment Communities’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.29 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Mid-America Apartment Communities will post 8.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on MAA. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $138.00 to $174.00 in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities from $139.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $169.00 target price on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $187.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Raymond James upgraded shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $175.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, October 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Mid-America Apartment Communities presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $162.68.

About Mid-America Apartment Communities

MAA, an S&P 500 company, is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on delivering full-cycle and superior investment performance for shareholders through the ownership, management, acquisition, development and redevelopment of quality apartment communities primarily in the Southeast, Southwest and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.