AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) Given New $208.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) had its price objective decreased by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $222.50 to $208.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 22.16% from the company’s previous close.

AVB has been the topic of several other reports. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $190.00 to $183.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of AvalonBay Communities in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded AvalonBay Communities from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $172.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Citigroup dropped their price target on AvalonBay Communities from $212.00 to $198.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on AvalonBay Communities from $217.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $198.75.

AvalonBay Communities Stock Performance

AvalonBay Communities stock traded up $1.31 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $170.27. 313,093 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,138,448. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $177.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $182.05. The firm has a market cap of $23.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77. AvalonBay Communities has a 52 week low of $166.73 and a 52 week high of $217.32.

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.01. AvalonBay Communities had a return on equity of 8.78% and a net margin of 34.57%.The firm had revenue of $767.86 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $766.38 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.80 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that AvalonBay Communities will post 11.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of AvalonBay Communities

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of AvalonBay Communities by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,800,375 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,639,876,000 after buying an additional 127,693 shares during the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its position in AvalonBay Communities by 18,031.0% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 11,785,150 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $213,677,000 after acquiring an additional 11,720,150 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in AvalonBay Communities by 1.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,537,966 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,858,788,000 after acquiring an additional 92,467 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of AvalonBay Communities in the fourth quarter worth about $1,394,635,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of AvalonBay Communities by 22.4% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,159,950 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $935,551,000 after acquiring an additional 944,129 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.61% of the company’s stock.

AvalonBay Communities Company Profile

AvalonBay Communities, Inc (NYSE: AVB) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, develops, redevelops and manages multifamily residential properties. The company focuses on professionally managed apartment communities, offering a range of rental housing options and related resident services. As a REIT, AvalonBay’s core activities center on the acquisition and development of apartment assets and the ongoing operations and leasing of those communities.

AvalonBay’s operating activities include ground-up development, strategic redevelopment of existing properties, property and asset management, and on-site leasing and resident services.