American Assets Trust, Inc. (NYSE:AAT) Short Interest Up 7.6% in October

American Assets Trust, Inc. (NYSE:AAT) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 902,000 shares, a growth of 7.6% from the September 30th total of 838,300 shares. Currently, 2.0% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 245,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.7 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on AAT shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of American Assets Trust from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of American Assets Trust from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th.

American Assets Trust Trading Down 3.0 %

Shares of American Assets Trust stock opened at $26.95 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $26.87 and a 200-day moving average of $24.17. The stock has a market cap of $1.64 billion, a PE ratio of 29.62 and a beta of 1.30. American Assets Trust has a 52-week low of $17.57 and a 52-week high of $28.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a current ratio of 3.03.

American Assets Trust (NYSE:AAT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by ($0.33). The business had revenue of $110.89 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $107.66 million. American Assets Trust had a net margin of 12.00% and a return on equity of 4.62%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.59 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that American Assets Trust will post 2.32 EPS for the current year.

American Assets Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a $0.335 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $1.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.97%. American Assets Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 147.25%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Custom Index Systems LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Assets Trust by 4.5% in the second quarter. Custom Index Systems LLC now owns 10,697 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $239,000 after acquiring an additional 463 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of American Assets Trust by 34.8% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,891 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 488 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in shares of American Assets Trust by 2.2% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 27,052 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $605,000 after acquiring an additional 571 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Assets Trust by 7.4% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 9,841 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $216,000 after acquiring an additional 681 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Texas Permanent School Fund Corp increased its stake in shares of American Assets Trust by 1.6% in the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 42,636 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $934,000 after buying an additional 689 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.43% of the company’s stock.

American Assets Trust Company Profile

American Assets Trust, Inc is a full service, vertically integrated and self-administered real estate investment trust ("REIT"), headquartered in San Diego, California. The company has over 55 years of experience in acquiring, improving, developing and managing premier office, retail, and residential properties throughout the United States in some of the nation's most dynamic, high-barrier-to-entry markets primarily in Southern California, Northern California, Washington, Oregon, Texas and Hawaii.