Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Makes New $1.28 Million Investment in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 20,900 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $1,278,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Consolidated Portfolio Review Corp bought a new stake in shares of Equity Residential in the fourth quarter valued at $232,000. Perigon Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 43,138 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,638,000 after buying an additional 968 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Equity Residential in the fourth quarter valued at $216,000. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 33.3% in the fourth quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 13,200 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $807,000 after buying an additional 3,300 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Equity Residential in the fourth quarter valued at $1,577,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Raymond James upgraded Equity Residential from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Truist Financial lowered their target price on Equity Residential from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Equity Residential from $58.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Equity Residential from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Monday. Finally, Mizuho decreased their price objective on Equity Residential from $62.00 to $61.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Equity Residential has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.75.

Insider Transactions at Equity Residential

In other news, COO Michael L. Manelis sold 1,639 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.43, for a total value of $97,405.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 31,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,479.79. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, COO Michael L. Manelis sold 1,639 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.43, for a total value of $97,405.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 31,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,479.79. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Robert Garechana sold 876 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.80, for a total value of $50,632.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 20,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,209,927.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 3,280 shares of company stock worth $192,335. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Equity Residential Price Performance

Shares of NYSE EQR opened at $62.54 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $61.58 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.71. Equity Residential has a twelve month low of $52.57 and a twelve month high of $69.45.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by ($0.18). The business had revenue of $727.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $725.07 million. Equity Residential had a return on equity of 7.43% and a net margin of 29.07%. Equity Residential’s revenue was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.94 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Equity Residential will post 3.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equity Residential Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 25th were issued a $0.675 dividend. This is a boost from Equity Residential’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 22nd. Equity Residential’s dividend payout ratio is presently 122.73%.

Equity Residential Profile

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.