American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.30 Per Share

American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of 0.30 per share by the real estate investment trust on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.37%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a 15.4% increase from American Homes 4 Rent’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26.

American Homes 4 Rent has raised its dividend by an average of 37.5% annually over the last three years. American Homes 4 Rent has a dividend payout ratio of 162.2% 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 American Homes 4 Rent to earn $1.98 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 60.6%.

American Homes 4 Rent Stock Performance

NYSE AMH opened at $35.64 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $35.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.18. The company has a market capitalization of $13.19 billion, a PE ratio of 33.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 0.77. American Homes 4 Rent has a 1 year low of $34.01 and a 1 year high of $41.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.58.

American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $436.59 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $442.02 million. American Homes 4 Rent had a return on equity of 5.33% and a net margin of 23.86%. As a group, analysts expect that American Homes 4 Rent will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of American Homes 4 Rent from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of American Homes 4 Rent from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of American Homes 4 Rent from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $39.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of American Homes 4 Rent from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $38.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com cut American Homes 4 Rent from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.47.

American Homes 4 Rent Company Profile

American Homes 4 Rent operates as a real estate investment trust. It engages in the acquisition, renovation, leasing, and operating of single-family homes as rental properties. The company was founded by Bradley Wayne Hughes, Sr. on October 19, 2012 and is headquartered in Las Vegas, NV.