Vontobel Holding Ltd. Sells 94,912 Shares of AvalonBay Communities, Inc. $AVB

Vontobel Holding Ltd. cut its position in shares of AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE:AVB) by 98.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,488 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 94,912 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in AvalonBay Communities were worth $287,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AVB. Metis Global Partners LLC grew its position in AvalonBay Communities by 13.8% during the second quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 36,980 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $7,525,000 after buying an additional 4,473 shares during the period. Amundi raised its stake in AvalonBay Communities by 17.7% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 449,348 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $90,768,000 after purchasing an additional 67,695 shares in the last quarter. FORA Capital LLC increased its stake in AvalonBay Communities by 78.7% during the second quarter. FORA Capital LLC now owns 15,702 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,195,000 after acquiring an additional 6,916 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in AvalonBay Communities by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 723,402 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $147,212,000 after purchasing an additional 10,929 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of AvalonBay Communities by 5.2% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 269,301 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $54,803,000 after buying an additional 13,400 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.61% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AVB. UBS Group lowered their price target on AvalonBay Communities from $216.00 to $192.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 10th. Wall Street Zen upgraded AvalonBay Communities from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 1st. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of AvalonBay Communities in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded AvalonBay Communities from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $205.89.

AvalonBay Communities Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of AVB stock opened at $185.01 on Wednesday. AvalonBay Communities, Inc. has a twelve month low of $166.73 and a twelve month high of $230.21. The stock has a market cap of $26.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.59, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.74. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $179.87 and a 200 day moving average of $189.61. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.81 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $766.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $766.22 million. AvalonBay Communities had a net margin of 38.78% and a return on equity of 9.72%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.74 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that AvalonBay Communities, Inc. will post 11.48 EPS for the current year.

AvalonBay Communities Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be paid a $1.75 dividend. This represents a $7.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 31st. AvalonBay Communities’s payout ratio is currently 85.47%.

About AvalonBay Communities

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.