Independence Realty Trust, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.16 (NYSE:IRT)

Independence Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:IRT) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, March 10th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a dividend of 0.16 per share by the real estate investment trust on Monday, April 21st. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th.

Independence Realty Trust has increased its dividend by an average of 10.1% annually over the last three years. Independence Realty Trust has a dividend payout ratio of 193.9% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities research analysts expect Independence Realty Trust to earn $1.27 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 50.4%.

Independence Realty Trust Price Performance

Shares of Independence Realty Trust stock traded down $0.30 on Tuesday, reaching $20.84. 2,362,545 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,010,954. The company has a 50 day moving average of $19.86 and a 200 day moving average of $20.26. Independence Realty Trust has a 52 week low of $15.23 and a 52 week high of $22.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.81 billion, a PE ratio of 115.75, a PEG ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.19.

Independence Realty Trust (NYSE:IRT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.24. Independence Realty Trust had a return on equity of 1.11% and a net margin of 6.15%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Independence Realty Trust will post 1.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Independence Realty Trust from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $21.00 in a report on Friday, November 15th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of Independence Realty Trust in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Independence Realty Trust from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Independence Realty Trust from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $20.00 to $24.00 in a report on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.71.

Independence Realty Trust Company Profile

Independence Realty Trust, Inc (NYSE: IRT) is a real estate investment trust that owns and operates multifamily communities, across non-gateway U.S. markets including Atlanta, GA, Dallas, TX, Denver, CO, Columbus, OH, Indianapolis, IN, Raleigh-Durham, NC, Oklahoma City, OK, Nashville, TN, Houston, TX, and Tampa, FL.