Mid-America Apartment Communities (MAA) Competitors

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) and Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, community ranking, analyst recommendations, dividends, media sentiment and earnings.

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in AVB or MAA?

92.6% of AvalonBay Communities shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.6% of Mid-America Apartment Communities shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of AvalonBay Communities shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Mid-America Apartment Communities shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, AVB or MAA?

AvalonBay Communities has higher revenue and earnings than Mid-America Apartment Communities. AvalonBay Communities is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Mid-America Apartment Communities, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AvalonBay Communities	$2.95B	9.97	$1.08B	$8.03	25.70
Mid-America Apartment Communities	$2.20B	8.00	$527.54M	$4.80	31.29

Do analysts recommend AVB or MAA?

AvalonBay Communities currently has a consensus target price of $237.86, suggesting a potential upside of 15.24%. Mid-America Apartment Communities has a consensus target price of $169.50, suggesting a potential upside of 12.85%. Given AvalonBay Communities' higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe AvalonBay Communities is more favorable than Mid-America Apartment Communities.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AvalonBay Communities	0 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.47
Mid-America Apartment Communities	1 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Which has more risk & volatility, AVB or MAA?

AvalonBay Communities has a beta of 0.86, suggesting that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mid-America Apartment Communities has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is AVB or MAA a better dividend stock?

AvalonBay Communities pays an annual dividend of $7.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Mid-America Apartment Communities pays an annual dividend of $6.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. AvalonBay Communities pays out 87.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Mid-America Apartment Communities pays out 126.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AvalonBay Communities has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years and Mid-America Apartment Communities has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years. Mid-America Apartment Communities is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the media prefer AVB or MAA?

In the previous week, Mid-America Apartment Communities had 2 more articles in the media than AvalonBay Communities. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for Mid-America Apartment Communities and 4 mentions for AvalonBay Communities. Mid-America Apartment Communities' average media sentiment score of 1.51 beat AvalonBay Communities' score of 0.90 indicating that Mid-America Apartment Communities is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
AvalonBay Communities	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Mid-America Apartment Communities	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community favor AVB or MAA?

AvalonBay Communities received 153 more outperform votes than Mid-America Apartment Communities when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 59.91% of users gave AvalonBay Communities an outperform vote while only 59.55% of users gave Mid-America Apartment Communities an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
AvalonBay Communities	Outperform Votes 677 59.91%	Underperform Votes 453 40.09%
Mid-America Apartment Communities	Outperform Votes 524 59.55%	Underperform Votes 356 40.45%

Is AVB or MAA more profitable?

AvalonBay Communities has a net margin of 37.13% compared to Mid-America Apartment Communities' net margin of 24.03%. AvalonBay Communities' return on equity of 9.15% beat Mid-America Apartment Communities' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AvalonBay Communities	37.13%	9.15%	5.15%
Mid-America Apartment Communities	24.03%	8.53%	4.52%

Summary

AvalonBay Communities beats Mid-America Apartment Communities on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.