One-glance verdict
Overvalued
$0.22 our estimate vs market $14.61
Wall Street consensus: $19.27 (8,547.8% higher than our fair-value estimate)
6457% above our estimate, beyond the bull case
Fundamentals snapshot
Independence Realty Trust, Inc.
IRT · NYQ · Real Estate · REIT - Residential
Current price
$14.61
52-week range
$14.53 - $17.79
Market cap
$3.53B
Balance sheet
Stretched
1.53x Concerning
Net debt $2.41B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
3 Risks
3 rewards · 3 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 1.4% last year.
- Reward Returns 1.3% on equity, ahead of 16% of its peers.
- Risk Forward P/E (182.6x) is higher than trailing (81.2x) - earnings are expected to drop.
- Risk Stock trades 10.0% above its 5-year average P/E.
What this company does
Independence Realty Trust, Inc.
Independence Realty Trust is a company that owns and operates apartment buildings in growing, mid-sized U.S. cities. The company makes money by collecting rent from its tenants, focusing on properties in desirable neighborhoods with good schools and jobs to attract stable renters. As a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), its main purpose is to generate income and pass a large portion of it on to investors through dividends (regular payments from the company's profits to its shareholders).
How the company got here
Independence Realty Trust (IRT) was founded in 2009 and became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange in 2013. A major turning point was its 2021 merger with Steadfast Apartment REIT, a move that essentially doubled the company's size and significantly increased its presence in the fast-growing Sunbelt region of the United States. This combination created a much larger company focused on apartment communities in what are known as non-gateway markets (cities that are not the primary entry points into the country, like New York or Los Angeles). More recently, in 2026, IRT announced another significant merger with Centerspace, further expanding its portfolio into the Midwest and Mountain West regions.
What it actually does
IRT is a Real Estate Investment Trust, or REIT (a company that owns and often operates income-producing real estate). Think of it as a landlord for thousands of apartment buildings across the country. The company buys and manages apartment communities in cities that are growing, often near major employers, good schools, and shopping centers. Its main goal is to provide a steady return to its investors through rental income and the increasing value of its properties.
Rental Operations
This is the company's primary business and where almost all of its money comes from. IRT owns and operates apartment buildings, leasing individual apartment homes to residents. The people who pay are regular individuals and families looking for a place to live. In addition to monthly rent, the company also generates revenue (the total amount of money a company brings in from its business activities) from other resident charges like utility reimbursements and various fees. This single segment constitutes the vast majority of the company's business.
What management is betting on now
Management's current strategy is focused on growth and efficiency in specific types of markets. They are concentrating on owning apartments in non-gateway cities, particularly in the Sunbelt, Midwest, and Mountain West, where they see strong population and job growth. A key initiative is their 'value-add' program, where they renovate and upgrade older apartment units to be able to charge higher rents. By merging with other companies like Centerspace, IRT aims to achieve greater scale, which can lead to operational efficiencies (cost savings from being bigger and more streamlined) and a stronger ability to compete for new properties.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
Revenue
$167.24M
Net income
$3.39M
Diluted EPS
0.01
Operating cash flow
$80.92M
Free cash flow
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Sources
Revenue
$165.32M
Net income
$-68.00K
Diluted EPS
0.00
Operating cash flow
$55.32M
Free cash flow
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Sources
Revenue
$167.13M
Net income
$33.27M
Diluted EPS
0.14
Operating cash flow
$60.19M
Free cash flow
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Sources
Revenue
$167.14M
Net income
$6.89M
Diluted EPS
0.03
Operating cash flow
$79.34M
Free cash flow
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Sources
Revenue
$162.19M
Net income
$8.05M
Diluted EPS
0.03
Operating cash flow
$82.25M
Free cash flow
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Sources
Revenue
$161.24M
Net income
$8.35M
Diluted EPS
0.04
Operating cash flow
$60.37M
Free cash flow
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Sources
Revenue
$160.96M
Net income
$-1.00M
Diluted EPS
0.00
Operating cash flow
$63.43M
Free cash flow
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Sources
Revenue
$160.13M
Net income
$12.37M
Diluted EPS
0.05
Operating cash flow
$69.24M
Free cash flow
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Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $0.22 vs current price $14.61
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $19.27 (8,547.8% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $0.22 a share — about 98.5% below today's price of $14.61, so the stock currently looks expensive (overvalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Stretched
Net debt $2.4B. Interest coverage 1.5x.
Net debt
$2.41B
Interest coverage
1.53x
Independence Realty Trust, Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 1.5 times over. and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Stretched
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
IRT
BASELINE
Independence Realty Trust, Inc.
Total debt $2.45B Interest coverage 1.53x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $4.87B Interest coverage 2.09x +36% vs IRT Carries about 1.4x more debt cushion than IRT.
Total debt $5.72B Interest coverage 3.34x +118% vs IRT Carries about 2.2x more debt cushion than IRT.
Total debt $5.99B Interest coverage 1.64x +7% vs IRT Has roughly the same debt cushion as IRT.
Total debt $6.75B Interest coverage 2.33x +52% vs IRT Carries about 1.5x more debt cushion than IRT.
Total debt $1.59B Interest coverage 0.34x -78% vs IRT Carries about 4.5x less debt cushion than IRT.
What you should know
The case for and against IRT
3 Rewards
3 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 1.4% last year.
-
Returns 1.3% on equity, ahead of 16% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 4/10 years.
Risks
-
Forward P/E (182.6x) is higher than trailing (81.2x) - earnings are expected to drop.
-
Stock trades 10.0% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Operating margin compressed from 14.8% to 14.8% over 3 years.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
81.17x
Forward P/E
182.62x
P/B
1.02x
P/S
5.21x
EV/EBITDA
15.80x
PEG ratio
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Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
60.7%
Operating margin
14.8%
Net margin
6.4%
ROE
1.3%
ROA
1.3%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.70x
Current ratio
0.59x
Quick ratio
0.16x
Total debt
$2.45B
Total cash
$37.36M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$666.83M
Revenue 5Y CAGR
27.3%
EPS TTM
0.18
EPS 5Y CAGR
-23.2%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$275.77M
Free CF TTM
$128.28M
FCF margin
19.2%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
4.9%
Payout ratio
383.3%
Last ex-div date
2026-09-30