State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Lowers Stock Holdings in Independence Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:IRT)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lowered its stake in shares of Independence Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:IRT) by 4.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 312,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 14,776 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D owned about 0.14% of Independence Realty Trust worth $6,198,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Independence Realty Trust by 24.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,360,979 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $232,900,000 after buying an additional 2,225,371 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in shares of Independence Realty Trust by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 6,139,652 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $121,811,000 after buying an additional 278,959 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Independence Realty Trust by 0.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,857,943 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $120,108,000 after buying an additional 50,788 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Independence Realty Trust by 236.0% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,027,943 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $82,573,000 after purchasing an additional 2,829,247 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Independence Realty Trust by 4.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,500,696 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $71,764,000 after purchasing an additional 137,464 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.25% of the company’s stock.

Independence Realty Trust Trading Up 1.4 %

IRT stock opened at $20.81 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $19.73 and a 200-day moving average of $20.11. Independence Realty Trust, Inc. has a 12-month low of $14.35 and a 12-month high of $22.26. The company has a market cap of $4.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.43, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.21.

Independence Realty Trust (NYSE:IRT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.24. Independence Realty Trust had a negative net margin of 0.03% and a negative return on equity of 0.01%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Independence Realty Trust, Inc. will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Independence Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.08%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Independence Realty Trust from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Independence Realty Trust from $23.00 to $21.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of Independence Realty Trust in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.50.

Independence Realty Trust Profile

Independence Realty Trust, Inc (NYSE: IRT) is a real estate investment trust that owns and operates multifamily communities, across non-gateway U.S. markets including Atlanta, GA, Dallas, TX, Denver, CO, Columbus, OH, Indianapolis, IN, Raleigh-Durham, NC, Oklahoma City, OK, Nashville, TN, Houston, TX, and Tampa, FL.