Some Investing Thoughts On American Assets Trust Inc. (NYSE: AAT)

The Vanguard Group, Inc. has recently announced that it has increased stake in American Assets Trust Inc. (NYSE:AAT) by 3.91%. After grabbing 8.26 million shares, the institutional investor is now in possession of 0.31 million shares of the Real Estate Company. The new investment brought the stake of investor firm to 13.64% having worth around $241.8 million. Moreover, FIAM LLC increased its share by 0.14 million to have a control over 1.73 million shares. And Macquarie Investment Management B raised its holdings to 27767.0 shares by acquiring 1.58 million shares or 2.61% of the stake.

American Assets Trust Inc. (AAT) concluded trading on 01/11/23 at a closing price of $27.14, with 0.41 million shares of worth about $11.16 million changed hands on the day. Half year performance of the stock remained negative as price took a plunge of -7.56% during that period and on Wednesday the price saw a gain of about 1.92%. Currently the company’s common shares owned by public are about 60.04M shares, out of which, 59.85M shares are available for trading.

A deeper look into what the analysts at Wall Street are thinking about the price target of this stock provides us with the following: 3 analysts are covering the AAT stock and their offered price forecasts bring an average price target of $28.67. Over the next 12 months, analysts forecasted that the stock’s price could jump as high as $30.00 and could fall to a lowest price of $28.00. The stock’s current price level is 16.49% above of average price target set by the analysts, while a rise to estimated low would result in gain of 3.07% for the stock. However, touching the estimated high of $30.00 would mean a gain of 9.53% for the stock.

According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), insiders took part in trade of the company’s stock for 49 times over the past 12 months. They bought 641,593 shares in 47 of the transactions. In 2 selling transactions, insiders dumped 15,465 shares.

iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF, Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund, and Vanguard Total Stock Market Index are the top 3 mutual funds which are holding stakes in American Assets Trust Inc. iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF is currently holding 3.81 million shares of worth totaling $111.48 million. The company recently came buying 0.0 shares which brought its stake up to 6.29% of the company’s outstanding shares. Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund sold 10927.0 shares, after which its hold over company’s outstanding shares shrunk to 3.84%, leaving 2.32 million shares with the mutual fund that have a worth of about $68.02 million. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, after buying 1.48 million shares, have now control over 2.44% of the stake in the company. It holds 3173.0 shares of worth $43.25 million.

American Assets Trust Inc. (NYSE: AAT) started trading at $26.71, above $0.08 from concluding price of the previous day. However, the stock later moved at a day high price of 27.24, or with a gain of 1.92%. Stock saw a price change of 0.67% in past 5 days and over the past one month there was a price change of -0.07%. Year-to-date (YTD), AAT shares are showing a performance of 2.42% which decreased to -29.23% when we look at its performance for past 12 months. Over the period of past 52 weeks, stock dropped to lowest price of $24.00 but also hit the highest price of $39.20 during that period. The average intraday trading volume for American Assets Trust Inc. shares is 315.70K. The stock is currently trading 1.63% above its 20-day simple moving average (SMA20), while that difference is down -1.16% for SMA50 and it goes to -8.96% lower than SMA200.

The Vanguard Group, Inc. acquired 8.26 million shares of American Assets Trust Inc. having value of about $241.8 million. Data submitted at the U.S SEC by The Vanguard Group, Inc. revealed that the firm now holds 0.31 million shares in the company valued at close to $8423984.6, or have control over 3.91% stake in the company. American Assets Trust Inc. (NYSE: AAT) currently have 60.04M outstanding shares and institutions hold larger chunk of about 95.00% of that. Holding of mutual funds in the company is about 27.80% while other institutional holders and individual stake holders have control over 52.82% and 21.13% of the stake respectively.

The stock has a current market capitalization of $1.60B and its 3Y-monthly beta is at 1.15. PE ratio of stock for trailing 12 months is 38.77, while it has posted earnings per share of $0.70 in the same period. It has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. Volatility of a stock is a metric used to know how much the price of that stock is under influence and for AAT, volatility over the week remained 1.97% while standing at 2.07% over the month.

Analysts are in expectations that American Assets Trust Inc. (AAT) stock would likely to be making an EPS of $0.14 in the current quarter, while forecast for next quarter EPS is $0.17 and it is $0.72 for next year. For the current quarter EPS, analysts have given the company a lowest target $0.13 which is $0.16 at the higher side of the target for the same. When we compare those targets with actual EPS, we find that company posted an EPS of $0.14 in the same quarter a year ago. Stock’s fiscal year EPS is expected to rise by 2.30% while it is estimated to increase by 2.74% in next year.

Analysts at 3 brokerage firms have issued recommendations for the American Assets Trust Inc. (AAT)’s stock out of those 3 Wall Street analysts, 0 recommended a “Buy” rating, while 2 were in favor recommending the stock as a “Hold” and 0 analyst recommended the stock as “Sell”.

Coverage by Mizuho stated American Assets Trust Inc. (AAT) stock as a Neutral in their note to investors on January 20, 2022, suggesting a price target of $40 for the stock. On May 17, 2021, KeyBanc Capital Markets Upgrade their recommendations, while on May 18, 2020, Morgan Stanley Downgrade their ratings for the stock with a price target of $25. Stock get a Mkt outperform rating from JMP Securities on May 30, 2019.