Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. (NYSE:MAA) Shares Sold by New York State Common Retirement Fund

New York State Common Retirement Fund lessened its position in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. (NYSE:MAA) by 3.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 61,228 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 2,000 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.05% of Mid-America Apartment Communities worth $10,261,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 192,228 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $32,214,000 after acquiring an additional 2,800 shares in the last quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC increased its stake in Mid-America Apartment Communities by 106.9% during the first quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 4,401 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $738,000 after purchasing an additional 2,274 shares during the last quarter. Starwood Capital Group Management L.L.C. raised its holdings in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities by 17.7% during the fourth quarter. Starwood Capital Group Management L.L.C. now owns 219,407 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $33,914,000 after purchasing an additional 33,000 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. lifted its position in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities by 92.0% in the 1st quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 28,134 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,715,000 after buying an additional 13,482 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 362,264 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $60,708,000 after buying an additional 5,650 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MAA. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities from $194.00 to $180.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 13th. JMP Securities upped their target price on Mid-America Apartment Communities from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Mizuho dropped their price target on Mid-America Apartment Communities from $166.00 to $161.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $165.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Mid-America Apartment Communities from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $168.81.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mid-America Apartment Communities

In other news, EVP Amber Fairbanks sold 173 shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.85, for a total value of $28,865.05. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 3,012 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $502,552.20. The trade was a 5.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Price Performance

NYSE MAA opened at $150.75 on Friday. Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. has a 12 month low of $138.89 and a 12 month high of $173.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.65 billion, a PE ratio of 31.41, a P/E/G ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 0.75. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $152.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $156.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.11 and a quick ratio of 0.11.

Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $549.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $551.21 million. Mid-America Apartment Communities had a return on equity of 9.19% and a net margin of 25.70%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.22 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. will post 8.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be issued a $1.515 dividend. This represents a $6.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.02%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 15th. Mid-America Apartment Communities’s payout ratio is 126.25%.

About Mid-America Apartment Communities

Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc is a real estate investment trust, which engages in the operation, acquisition, and development of apartment communities. It operates through the Same Store and Non-Same Store segments. The Same Store Communities segment represents those apartment communities that have been owned and stabilized for at least 12 months as of the first day of the calendar year.