Short Interest in American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH) Grows By 7.3%

American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 10,310,000 shares, a growth of 7.3% from the August 15th total of 9,610,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,140,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.8 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Homes 4 Rent

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of American Homes 4 Rent in the second quarter valued at $32,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in American Homes 4 Rent during the 2nd quarter valued at about $44,000. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in American Homes 4 Rent during the 2nd quarter valued at about $54,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in American Homes 4 Rent by 24.1% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,557 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 302 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its holdings in shares of American Homes 4 Rent by 24.3% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,588 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 310 shares in the last quarter. 91.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AMH. Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $42.00 target price on shares of American Homes 4 Rent in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of American Homes 4 Rent from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 10th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on American Homes 4 Rent from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays decreased their target price on American Homes 4 Rent from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised American Homes 4 Rent from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.60.

American Homes 4 Rent Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AMH opened at $40.95 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 1.54. American Homes 4 Rent has a one year low of $31.36 and a one year high of $41.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.79, a PEG ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.76. The company’s fifty day moving average is $37.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.80.

American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.18). American Homes 4 Rent had a return on equity of 4.89% and a net margin of 21.83%. The company had revenue of $423.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $422.46 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.41 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that American Homes 4 Rent will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Homes 4 Rent Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. American Homes 4 Rent’s dividend payout ratio is currently 106.12%.

About American Homes 4 Rent

AMH (NYSE: AMH) is a leading large-scale integrated owner, operator and developer of single-family rental homes. We're an internally managed Maryland real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on acquiring, developing, renovating, leasing and managing homes as rental properties. Our goal is to simplify the experience of leasing a home and deliver peace of mind to households across the country.