Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Receives $75.97 Average PT from Analysts

Shares of Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the nineteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $75.97.

A number of research firms have recently commented on EQR. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Equity Residential from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $62.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Bank of America cut Equity Residential from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $78.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Truist Financial upped their price target on Equity Residential from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group upped their price target on Equity Residential from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Equity Residential from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st.

Equity Residential Stock Performance

Shares of EQR opened at $74.67 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $74.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.17 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a current ratio of 0.21. Equity Residential has a 52-week low of $52.57 and a 52-week high of $78.83.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.96 by ($0.49). Equity Residential had a net margin of 32.83% and a return on equity of 8.53%. The firm had revenue of $734.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $735.26 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.94 earnings per share. Equity Residential’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Equity Residential will post 3.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equity Residential Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 24th were given a dividend of $0.675 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 24th. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.62%. Equity Residential’s dividend payout ratio is currently 112.03%.

Institutional Trading of Equity Residential

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 482.3% in the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,153,749 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $496,040,000 after buying an additional 5,925,177 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 679.0% in the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 594,774 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $40,528,000 after buying an additional 518,424 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 39.6% in the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 1,676,445 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $116,245,000 after buying an additional 475,124 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 77.5% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,061,862 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $67,014,000 after buying an additional 463,664 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 793.8% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 444,791 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $28,071,000 after buying an additional 395,029 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.68% of the company’s stock.

About Equity Residential

Equity Residential is committed to creating communities where people thrive. The Company, a member of the S&P 500, is focused on the acquisition, development and management of residential properties located in and around dynamic cities that attract affluent long-term renters. Equity Residential owns or has investments in 305 properties consisting of 80,683 apartment units, with an established presence in Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Seattle, San Francisco and Southern California, and an expanding presence in Denver, Atlanta, Dallas/Ft.