AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) Updates Q2 Earnings Guidance

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) updated its second quarter earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $2.63-2.73 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $2.70. AvalonBay Communities also updated its FY24 guidance to $10.71-11.11 EPS.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AVB. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a sector perform rating and issued a $185.00 target price on shares of AvalonBay Communities in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Truist Financial dropped their target price on AvalonBay Communities from $201.00 to $197.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on AvalonBay Communities in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. They set a buy rating and a $206.00 target price for the company. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $188.00 to $185.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded AvalonBay Communities from an outperform rating to a peer perform rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $196.78.

AvalonBay Communities Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE:AVB traded down $0.04 during trading on Thursday, reaching $191.30. 1,073,207 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 814,883. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 0.92. AvalonBay Communities has a 52-week low of $160.45 and a 52-week high of $198.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The business’s fifty day moving average is $182.10 and its 200-day moving average is $178.43.

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.73 by ($1.03). The company had revenue of $704.71 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $701.67 million. AvalonBay Communities had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 7.98%. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.59 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that AvalonBay Communities will post 10.8 EPS for the current year.

AvalonBay Communities Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a $1.70 dividend. This is a positive change from AvalonBay Communities’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.65. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.55%. AvalonBay Communities’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 103.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Joanne M. Lockridge sold 1,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.10, for a total value of $323,925.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 21,907 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,985.70. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other AvalonBay Communities news, CFO Kevin P. O’shea sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.65, for a total transaction of $928,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 31,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,812,330.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Joanne M. Lockridge sold 1,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.10, for a total value of $323,925.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 21,907 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,985.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

AvalonBay Communities Company Profile

As of December 31, 2023, the Company owned or held a direct or indirect ownership interest in 299 apartment communities containing 90,669 apartment homes in 12 states and the District of Columbia, of which 18 communities were under development. The Company is an equity REIT in the business of developing, redeveloping, acquiring and managing apartment communities in leading metropolitan areas in New England, the New York/New Jersey Metro area, the Mid-Atlantic, the Pacific Northwest, and Northern and Southern California, as well as in the Company's expansion regions of Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte, North Carolina, Southeast Florida, Dallas and Austin, Texas, and Denver, Colorado.