Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Has $11.49 Million Stake in AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE:AVB)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its stake in shares of AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE:AVB) by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 52,224 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,070 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in AvalonBay Communities were worth $11,488,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in AVB. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in AvalonBay Communities by 678.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,715,050 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $386,315,000 after purchasing an additional 1,494,872 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in AvalonBay Communities during the 3rd quarter valued at about $581,960,000. State Street Corp boosted its stake in AvalonBay Communities by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,245,028 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,097,971,000 after purchasing an additional 196,938 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in AvalonBay Communities by 958.9% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 172,618 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $38,882,000 after purchasing an additional 156,316 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP bought a new position in shares of AvalonBay Communities during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,256,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $234.00 to $233.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Mizuho raised shares of AvalonBay Communities from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $239.00 to $242.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $244.00 to $241.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of AvalonBay Communities from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $247.00 to $262.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $243.00 to $230.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $234.60.

AvalonBay Communities Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of AVB stock opened at $214.48 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $223.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $221.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.64 and a quick ratio of 1.64. AvalonBay Communities, Inc. has a 1 year low of $169.37 and a 1 year high of $239.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.34, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.99.

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.71 by ($0.10). AvalonBay Communities had a net margin of 36.20% and a return on equity of 8.84%. The business had revenue of $734.31 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $731.67 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.66 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that AvalonBay Communities, Inc. will post 11.04 earnings per share for the current year.

AvalonBay Communities Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a dividend of $1.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.17%. AvalonBay Communities’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 93.02%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Timothy J. Naughton sold 23,697 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.47, for a total transaction of $5,532,538.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 87,239 shares in the company, valued at $20,367,689.33. The trade was a 21.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

AvalonBay Communities Profile

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.