Wexford Capital LP Makes New $215,000 Investment in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)

Wexford Capital LP purchased a new stake in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 3,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $215,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Equity Residential in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,493,426,000. APG Asset Management US Inc. boosted its position in shares of Equity Residential by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. now owns 11,664,576 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $837,050,000 after acquiring an additional 57,660 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,519,627 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $681,594,000 after acquiring an additional 165,683 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,897,863 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $566,749,000 after acquiring an additional 152,248 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Equity Residential by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,522,442 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $468,050,000 after acquiring an additional 696,343 shares during the period. 92.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EQR has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Equity Residential from $79.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 9th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $82.25 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Equity Residential from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Equity Residential from $74.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Equity Residential from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 8th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Equity Residential has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $79.69.

Equity Residential Price Performance

Shares of Equity Residential stock opened at $71.35 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $68.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $70.86. Equity Residential has a twelve month low of $59.41 and a twelve month high of $78.84. The firm has a market cap of $27.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.99 and a beta of 0.89.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $760.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $769.43 million. Equity Residential had a net margin of 34.76% and a return on equity of 9.27%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.93 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Equity Residential will post 3.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equity Residential Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were given a $0.6925 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. This is a positive change from Equity Residential’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. This represents a $2.77 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.88%. Equity Residential’s payout ratio is 105.73%.

Equity Residential Company 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.