AVB vs. EQR, ESS, MAA, SUI, UDR, ELS, CPT, VICI, EXR, and IRM
Should you be buying AvalonBay Communities stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of AvalonBay Communities include Equity Residential (EQR), Essex Property Trust (ESS), Mid-America Apartment Communities (MAA), Sun Communities (SUI), UDR (UDR), Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS), Camden Property Trust (CPT), VICI Properties (VICI), Extra Space Storage (EXR), and Iron Mountain (IRM). These companies are all part of the "real estate investment trusts" industry.
Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) and AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, media sentiment, valuation, dividends, community ranking and profitability.
AvalonBay Communities received 174 more outperform votes than Equity Residential when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.29% of users gave AvalonBay Communities an outperform vote while only 47.76% of users gave Equity Residential an outperform vote.
Equity Residential has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AvalonBay Communities has a beta of 0.9, suggesting that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.
AvalonBay Communities has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Equity Residential. Equity Residential is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AvalonBay Communities, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Equity Residential currently has a consensus target price of $68.22, indicating a potential upside of 1.62%. AvalonBay Communities has a consensus target price of $202.83, indicating a potential upside of 1.98%. Given Equity Residential's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe AvalonBay Communities is more favorable than Equity Residential.
Equity Residential pays an annual dividend of $2.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. AvalonBay Communities pays an annual dividend of $6.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Equity Residential pays out 112.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AvalonBay Communities pays out 101.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Equity Residential has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years and AvalonBay Communities has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Equity Residential is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
92.7% of Equity Residential shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.6% of AvalonBay Communities shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Equity Residential shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of AvalonBay Communities shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
AvalonBay Communities has a net margin of 34.05% compared to AvalonBay Communities' net margin of 31.70%. AvalonBay Communities' return on equity of 8.18% beat Equity Residential's return on equity.
In the previous week, AvalonBay Communities had 3 more articles in the media than Equity Residential. MarketBeat recorded 28 mentions for AvalonBay Communities and 25 mentions for Equity Residential. Equity Residential's average media sentiment score of 0.68 beat AvalonBay Communities' score of 0.64 indicating that AvalonBay Communities is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Summary
AvalonBay Communities beats Equity Residential on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AVB and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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