Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc (MAA) stock analysis
Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc (MAA) clears 4 of this site's 8 mechanical value filters, 2 of 8 Buffett-style checks and 1 of 5 Lynch-style checks. A free-cash-flow DCF does not fit real estate companies, so no margin of safety is shown. It returns +5.1% to shareholders net of dilution. Figures are as of October 23, 2026, from SEC filings and market data refreshed weekly; this is educational analysis, not investment advice.
Data as of October 23, 2026. Refreshed weekly from SEC filings and market data.
What does Mid-America Apartment Communities do?
Mid-America Apartment Communities is a REIT that owns and operates apartment communities across the US Sun Belt.
What stands out about Mid-America Apartment Communities?
- Misses 2 of the 8 value filters. It fails Market Cap > $25B ($14.0B) and Trailing P/E < 25 (34.81); the other 4 pass and 2 were not evaluated. See every filter.
- Close to its 52-week low. At $121.17, MAA is 6.1% above its low of $114.21 and 14.8% below its high of $142.19. See the range.
- Strongest against peers: dividend yield. At 5.10% (peer median 4.08%) it ranks 7th of 28 among real estate stocks this site tracks. See the ranking.
- Dividend raises 1 of 6 flags. Its trailing yield is 5.10%. See the Sustainable Dividend Screener.
How has Mid-America Apartment Communities' share price moved?
The interactive price chart needs JavaScript.
Is Mid-America Apartment Communities undervalued? The value diligence check
Every value-investing signal this site computes for this stock, gathered in one place: the same real numbers from the tools below, not a new score.
- Margin of safety (DCF) n/a (Real Estate)
- P/E vs. its own history 34.8x · near the cheap end Real range: 28.4x–49.4x over 5 years (net income per diluted share from each fiscal year's 10-K, paired with the real closing price at that fiscal year-end).
- Wall St. analyst rating Hold · 3.32/5 31 analysts this month: 3 strong buy, 9 buy, 15 hold, 3 sell, 1 strong sell (Finnhub).
- Altman Z″-Score (bankruptcy risk) n/a (Real Estate)
- Earnings quality (is the profit real?) n/a (bank, insurer or REIT)
- Shareholder yield (cash back to owners) +5.1% net Latest fiscal year (2025): dividends 5.1% + buybacks 0.2% − stock comp 0.1%, as a share of today's market cap. Over 8 years its split-adjusted share count rose 3%. See Shareholder Yield Leaders.
- Capital needed to grow (See's test) n/a (bank, insurer, lender or REIT)
- PEG (growth at a reasonable price) n/a (falling or negative earnings)
- Compounder lenses (4) 1 of 4 · misses capital-light (n/a), real profit (n/a), price (n/a) Capital-light growth: cannot be measured (bank, insurer, lender or REIT); Profit is real: cannot be measured (bank, insurer or REIT); Cash to owners: cleared; Fair price (PEG): cannot be measured (falling or negative earnings). See Compounders at a Fair Price, which also lets you move the PEG bar.
- Munger's Inversion Check 0 flags
- Standing vs. sector peers 1 of 4 measures above the median Compared with the 29 other real estate stocks this site tracks: 1 in the top third, 0 in the bottom third.
- Dividend payout sustainability 1/6 flags
How does Mid-America Apartment Communities compare with its peers?
1 of 4 measure sits above the median of the 29 other real estate stocks tracked here, 1 in the top third.
- P/E ratiolower is cheaper · peer median 31.5× 34.8× –17th of 29
- Return on equityhigher is better · peer median 8% 7% –17th of 30
- Net marginhigher is better · peer median 20.9% 18.2% –18th of 30
- Dividend yieldamong dividend payers · peer median 4.08% 5.10% ✓7th of 28
Peers are the stocks this site tracks in the same sector group, not every listed competitor. The bar runs from the weakest peer (left) to the strongest (right); the tick is the middle. Measures that don't apply to a sector (cash-flow yield for banks, debt for financials) are left out.
What would Buffett & Lynch say?
Buffett's checklist is built around durable, profitable businesses bought at sensible prices, and MAA doesn't clear enough of it yet. In its favor: MAA converts sales into profit at healthy margins, and has grown earnings per share at a solid clip over five years. Where it comes up short: MAA isn't clearing the return-on-equity bar he'd want to see right now, and its five-year average return on equity falls short too, so this isn't just a one-off dip, carries more debt relative to equity than he typically tolerates, doesn't cover its interest expense as comfortably as he'd want, is trading above what a conservative discounted-cash-flow estimate says it's worth right now, and trades rich relative to owner earnings, the real cash the business could pay out.
- ROE (TTM) > 11% ✕
- ROE (5yr avg) > 11% ✕
- Debt/Equity < 0.5 ✕
- Pretax margin > 15% ✓
- EPS growth (5yr) > 7% ✓
- Interest coverage > 5x ✕
- Trading below intrinsic value (DCF) ✕
- Price vs. owner earnings < 25x ✕
- Bonus: returning capital via buybacks FY2025
Lynch looked for growth stories that weren't overpriced for that growth, and MAA falls short of his bar. In its favor: MAA pays a real dividend, the actual reason he bought slow growers at all. Where it comes up short: MAA isn't even growing at the modest pace he'd expect from a slow grower, carries more debt than he liked to see, even allowing for the extra room a large, stable business gets, is priced too rich for how little growth is actually left in the business, and trades expensive relative to the cash it actually generates.
- Dividend yield > 2.5% ✓
- EPS growth 0%-10% ✕
- Debt/Equity < 0.6 ✕
- P/E < 20 ✕
- Price/FCF < 25 ✕
Quantitative approximations of each investor's documented approach, not endorsed by either investor or their estates - commentary, not this site's actual ranking criteria. Buffett never published a numeric checklist: only 2 of his 8 checks here trace to his own documented concepts ("owner earnings," from his 1986 shareholder letter, and "price is what you pay, value is what you get," his case against fixed P/E/P/B ceilings) - the other 6 (ROE, debt, margins, growth, interest coverage) use commonly-cited thresholds that are not numbers he himself published. The 8 hard filters below (plus the Munger check and Graham margin of safety) are this site's real, mechanical screen and are computed completely independently of the checklists above.
Berkshire Hathaway's own filing
Which of the 8 value filters does Mid-America Apartment Communities pass?
- Market Cap > $25B $14.0B
- Trailing P/E < 25 34.81
- PEG Ratio < 1.5 -6.45
- Price/Book < 8 2.57
- Price/Sales < 7 6.33
- EPS Growth YoY > -5% +13.6%
- vs 50-day MA (±12%) Not evaluated †
- vs 200-day MA (±12%) Not evaluated †
What is Mid-America Apartment Communities' margin of safety?
A standard free-cash-flow DCF doesn't fit how real estate companies report cash flow.
Where is Mid-America Apartment Communities in its 52-week range?
What is the short interest in Mid-America Apartment Communities?
4,633,252 shares short as of 2026-09-30 (FINRA settlement date). Reported twice a month, so this only changes roughly every two weeks, not daily.
What could go wrong with Mid-America Apartment Communities? Munger's inversion check
"Invert, always invert." Instead of reasons to buy, these are reasons to hesitate, not a verdict, and not everything worth knowing about a business.
- Margin of safety, even in the bull case n/a (Real Estate)
- Short interest under 5% of float 4.0%
- Passes most of the 6 fundamental filters 4/6 passed
Doesn't cover circle of competence, management quality, or accounting concerns: those need judgment, not data.
How much have Mid-America Apartment Communities shareholders gained per year?
Earnings growth per share plus dividend.
An earnings-based proxy, not a stock-price total return - it doesn't capture multiple expansion/contraction or reinvested dividends. EPS from MAA's own 10-K filings; dividend yield is the current trailing yield on today's price, from the same weekly fetch as the rest of this site.
What do Mid-America Apartment Communities' 10-year financials show?
From MAA's own 10-K filings (SEC EDGAR): up to the last 9 fiscal years. Press any year's bars for the exact figures.
Frequently asked questions about Mid-America Apartment Communities
What kind of company is Mid-America Apartment Communities?
Mid-America Apartment Communities is a REIT that owns and operates apartment communities across the US Sun Belt. This site groups it with Real Estate stocks.
Why does Mid-America Apartment Communities have no margin of safety on this site?
This site's DCF values a company from its free cash flow, and that does not fit real-estate companies, which are valued on property income rather than on free cash flow. So MAA gets no margin of safety; judge it on the other checks on this page, such as its filters, shareholder yield and ranking against its peers. The method is in the Intrinsic Value Calculator.
How many of this site's 8 value filters does Mid-America Apartment Communities pass?
MAA passes 4 of 8. It passes PEG Ratio < 1.5 (-6.45), Price/Book < 8 (2.57), Price/Sales < 7 (6.33) and EPS Growth YoY > -5% (+13.6%). It misses Market Cap > $25B ($14.0B) and Trailing P/E < 25 (34.81). vs 50-day MA (±12%) and vs 200-day MA (±12%) were not evaluated, because the moving-average checks only run on stocks that clear the fundamentals first. The 8-filter list shows every stock that passes all of them.
How much cash does Mid-America Apartment Communities return to shareholders?
MAA's net shareholder yield is +5.1%: the cash it returns through dividends and buybacks, minus stock-based compensation, as a share of its market value. Latest fiscal year (2025): dividends 5.1% + buybacks 0.2% − stock comp 0.1%, as a share of today's market cap. Over 8 years its split-adjusted share count rose 3%. Its trailing dividend yield is 5.10%, paid out of 325% of its free cash flow; the dividend-sustainability check raises 1 of 6 flags (a high cash-flow payout). See Shareholder Yield Leaders and the Sustainable Dividend Screener.
Where is Mid-America Apartment Communities trading compared with its 52-week range?
At $121.17, MAA trades 5.9% above its 52-week low of $114.21 and 14.8% below its 52-week high of $142.19. The Near 52-Week Low list tracks stocks in that position.
When does Mid-America Apartment Communities report earnings next?
Mid-America Apartment Communities's next earnings report is expected on October 28, 2026 after the market closes, with analysts expecting earnings of $0.77 per share. Dates come from the Finnhub earnings calendar and can move. In its last 4 quarters it beat the estimate 2 times, by an average of +3.3%.
Where do these numbers come from?
- Financial statements: Mid-America Apartment Communities's 10-K annual report for the year ended Dec 31, 2025, filed Feb 6, 2026 (filing index). Every earlier year in the 10-year financials comes from the company's older 10-K filings, all listed on SEC EDGAR.
- Prices and market data: quotes, P/E and analyst ratings from Finnhub; daily price history and the 52-week range from Twelve Data, both refreshed weekly. Short interest comes from FINRA, reported twice a month.
- How to check a figure: click any number in the card above to see its exact source, and read the Editorial Standards for every rule behind the checks.
About this Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc analysis
This page shows every value-investing check the site runs on Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc (MAA) in one place: the 8 mechanical filters, the Buffett and Lynch checklists, a margin of safety from a disclosed DCF, earnings quality, shareholder yield and how it ranks against its sector peers. The numbers come from SEC filings and public market data, refreshed weekly, and the same rules apply to every stock on the stock list. See Editorial Standards for the sources and the rules, or run your own filters in the stock screener.