How to buy Mid-America Apartment Communities shares

Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc (MAA) is a leading reit-residential business with stocks listed in the US. It opened the day at US$171.29 after a previous close of US$171.53. During the day the price has varied from a low of USD170.09 to a high of USD171.69. The latest price was USD171.55 (25 minute delay). Mid-America Apartment Communities is listed on the NYSE. All prices are listed in US Dollars.

How to buy shares in Mid-America Apartment Communities

1. Compare share trading platforms. To buy shares in a US company from Australia you'll need to find a trading platform that offers access to US stock markets. If you're just starting out, look for a platform with low brokerage and foreign exchange fees.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and tax file number. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Mid-America Apartment Communities. Find the share by name or ticker symbol: MAA. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Mid-America Apartment Communities reaches your desired price. To spread out your risk, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of US$165.53, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimise risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Mid-America Apartment Communities, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Mid-America Apartment Communities. Optimise your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

Mid-America Apartment Communities share price

Use our graph to track the performance of MAA stocks over time.

Mid-America Apartment Communities shares at a glance

• Live prices
• Key figures

Information last updated 2021-06-11.

Open	US$171.29
High	US$171.69
Low	US$170.09
Close	US$171.55
Previous close	US$171.53
Change	US$0.02
Change %	0.0117%
Volume	498,829

Information last updated 2021-06-09.

52-week range	US$104.6479 - US$172.33
50-day moving average	US$158.3024
200-day moving average	US$140.491
Target price	US$163.69
PE ratio	73.7927
Dividend yield	US$4.025 (2.4%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	US$2.286

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The value of your investments can fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is no indication of future results.

Is it a good time to buy Mid-America Apartment Communities stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc by TradingView

Mid-America Apartment Communities price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the last close of $171.55

1 week (2021-06-02)	3.51%
1 month (2021-05-12)	11.01%
3 months (2021-03-11)	25.63%
6 months (2020-12-11)	41.01%

1 year (2020-06-11)	48.58%
2 years (2019-06-11)	46.54%
3 years (2018-06-11)	78.14%
5 years (2016-06-10)	74.80%

Is Mid-America Apartment Communities under- or over-valued?

Valuing Mid-America Apartment Communities stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Mid-America Apartment Communities's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Mid-America Apartment Communities's P/E ratio

Mid-America Apartment Communities's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 74x. In other words, Mid-America Apartment Communities shares trade at around 74x recent earnings.

That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.

Mid-America Apartment Communities's PEG ratio

Mid-America Apartment Communities's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 10.19. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Mid-America Apartment Communities's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Mid-America Apartment Communities's EBITDA

Mid-America Apartment Communities's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is US$938.8 million.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Mid-America Apartment Communities's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Mid-America Apartment Communities financials

Revenue TTM	US$1.7 billion
Operating margin TTM	25.05%
Gross profit TTM	US$985.2 million
Return on assets TTM	2.36%
Return on equity TTM	4.49%
Profit margin	15.76%
Book value	50.736
Market capitalisation	US$19.3 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Mid-America Apartment Communities shares

There are currently 1.5 million Mid-America Apartment Communities shares held short by investors – that's known as Mid-America Apartment Communities's "short interest". This figure is 1% up from 1.5 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Mid-America Apartment Communities shares can be evaluated.

Mid-America Apartment Communities's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Mid-America Apartment Communities's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Mid-America Apartment Communities shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Mid-America Apartment Communities shares traded daily (recently around 544175.2688172). Mid-America Apartment Communities's SIR currently stands at 2.79. In other words for every 100,000 Mid-America Apartment Communities shares traded daily on the market, roughly 2790 shares are currently held short.

However Mid-America Apartment Communities's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Mid-America Apartment Communities shares, or, against the total number of tradable Mid-America Apartment Communities shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Mid-America Apartment Communities's short interest could be expressed as 0.01% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Mid-America Apartment Communities shares in existence, roughly 10 shares are currently held short) or 0.0181% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Mid-America Apartment Communities shares, roughly 18 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Mid-America Apartment Communities.

Find out more about how you can short Mid-America Apartment Communities stock.

Mid-America Apartment Communities's environmental, social and governance track record

Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like Mid-America Apartment Communities.

When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.

Mid-America Apartment Communities's total ESG risk score

Total ESG risk: 25.31

Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and Mid-America Apartment Communities's overall score of 25.31 (as at 12/31/2018) is pretty good – landing it in it in the 23rd percentile of companies rated in the same sector.

ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like Mid-America Apartment Communities is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).

Mid-America Apartment Communities's environmental score

Environmental score: 11.53/100

Mid-America Apartment Communities's environmental score of 11.53 puts it squarely in the 7th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Mid-America Apartment Communities is a leader in its sector terms of its environmental impact, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

Mid-America Apartment Communities's social score

Social score: 13.12/100

Mid-America Apartment Communities's social score of 13.12 puts it squarely in the 7th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Mid-America Apartment Communities is a leader in its sector when it comes to taking good care of its workforce and the communities it impacts.

Mid-America Apartment Communities's governance score

Governance score: 9.66/100

Mid-America Apartment Communities's governance score puts it squarely in the 7th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. That could suggest that Mid-America Apartment Communities is a leader in its sector when it comes to responsible management and strategy, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

Mid-America Apartment Communities's controversy score

Controversy score: 1/5

ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. Mid-America Apartment Communities scored a 1 out of 5 for controversy – the highest score possible, reflecting that Mid-America Apartment Communities has managed to keep its nose clean.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary

Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc was last rated for ESG on: 2019-01-01.

Total ESG score	25.31
Total ESG percentile	22.98
Environmental score	11.53
Environmental score percentile	7
Social score	13.12
Social score percentile	7
Governance score	9.66
Governance score percentile	7
Level of controversy	1

Mid-America Apartment Communities share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 62.4% of net profits

Recently Mid-America Apartment Communities has paid out, on average, around 62.4% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 2.45% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Mid-America Apartment Communities shareholders could enjoy a 2.45% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Mid-America Apartment Communities's case, that would currently equate to about $4.025 per share.

Mid-America Apartment Communities's payout ratio would broadly be considered high, and as such this stock could appeal to those looking to generate an income. Bear in mind however that companies should normally also look to re-invest a decent amount of net profits to ensure future growth.

Mid-America Apartment Communities's most recent dividend payout was on 29 July 2021. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 13 July 2021 (the "ex-dividend date").

Mid-America Apartment Communities share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Mid-America Apartment Communities's shares have ranged in value from as little as US$104.6479 up to US$172.33. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Mid-America Apartment Communities's is 0.6473. This would suggest that Mid-America Apartment Communities's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).

Mid-America Apartment Communities overview

MAA, an S&P 500 company, is a real estate investment trust, or REIT, focused on delivering full-cycle and superior investment performance for shareholders through the ownership, management, acquisition, development and redevelopment of quality apartment communities in the Southeast, Southwest, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. As of December 31, 2020, MAA had ownership interest in 102,772 apartment units, including communities currently in development, across 16 states and the District of Columbia.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Mid-America Apartment Communities is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 0.666% of Mid-America Apartment Communities shares are held by insiders and 95.416% by institutions.

• When does the fiscal year end for Mid-America Apartment Communities?

  Mid-America Apartment Communities's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is Mid-America Apartment Communities based?

  Mid-America Apartment Communities's address is: 6815 Poplar Avenue, Germantown, TN, United States, 38138

• What is Mid-America Apartment Communities's ISIN number?

  Mid-America Apartment Communities's international securities identification number is: US59522J1034

• What is Mid-America Apartment Communities's CUSIP number?

  Mid-America Apartment Communities's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 59522J103