Bank of America Corp DE Purchases 284,421 Shares of AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE:AVB)

Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE:AVB) by 86.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 614,118 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 284,421 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE’s holdings in AvalonBay Communities were worth $135,088,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AVB. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its stake in AvalonBay Communities by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 6,353 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,398,000 after buying an additional 143 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in shares of AvalonBay Communities by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 305,729 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $67,251,000 after acquiring an additional 46,198 shares during the period. Ancora Advisors LLC boosted its stake in AvalonBay Communities by 1,666.7% during the fourth quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 159 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. DoubleLine ETF Adviser LP grew its holdings in AvalonBay Communities by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. DoubleLine ETF Adviser LP now owns 10,231 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,251,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the period. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV bought a new stake in AvalonBay Communities in the fourth quarter valued at $6,599,000. 92.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AvalonBay Communities Stock Performance

AVB stock opened at $205.40 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market cap of $29.24 billion, a PE ratio of 27.06, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.86. The business has a 50 day moving average of $206.99 and a 200-day moving average of $217.57. AvalonBay Communities, Inc. has a 12-month low of $180.40 and a 12-month high of $239.29.

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.80 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $693.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $744.61 million. AvalonBay Communities had a return on equity of 9.15% and a net margin of 37.13%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.70 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that AvalonBay Communities, Inc. will post 11.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on AVB. Zelman & Associates upgraded AvalonBay Communities from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on AvalonBay Communities from $229.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Morgan Stanley cut AvalonBay Communities from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $236.00 to $223.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $227.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $238.86.

About AvalonBay Communities

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.