Employees Retirement System of Texas Boosts Stake in American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH)

Employees Retirement System of Texas increased its stake in American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH - Free Report) by 24.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 275,565 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after purchasing an additional 54,704 shares during the quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas owned approximately 0.07% of American Homes 4 Rent worth $103,116,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in AMH. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in American Homes 4 Rent by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,948,804 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,681,984,000 after purchasing an additional 240,583 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in American Homes 4 Rent during the 4th quarter valued at about $822,019,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of American Homes 4 Rent by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,987,142 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $598,232,000 after acquiring an additional 1,015,351 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of American Homes 4 Rent by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 13,805,224 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $516,591,000 after purchasing an additional 689,741 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC increased its position in American Homes 4 Rent by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,983,364 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $336,157,000 after acquiring an additional 757,772 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.87% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on AMH. Barclays upped their target price on shares of American Homes 4 Rent from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and set a $41.00 price objective on shares of American Homes 4 Rent in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of American Homes 4 Rent from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $40.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of American Homes 4 Rent from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price target for the company from $39.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Raymond James decreased their price target on shares of American Homes 4 Rent from $44.00 to $39.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $40.14.

American Homes 4 Rent Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of American Homes 4 Rent stock traded up $0.83 during trading on Friday, hitting $35.17. 1,894,947 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,200,827. The firm has a market cap of $13.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 0.73. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $35.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.54. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. American Homes 4 Rent has a 52-week low of $31.68 and a 52-week high of $41.41.

American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.30. American Homes 4 Rent had a net margin of 23.86% and a return on equity of 5.33%. The business had revenue of $436.59 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $442.02 million. On average, equities analysts predict that American Homes 4 Rent will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Homes 4 Rent Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.41%. This is a positive change from American Homes 4 Rent's previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. American Homes 4 Rent's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 111.11%.

About American Homes 4 Rent

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.