Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Shares Bought by Ameriprise Financial Inc.

Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) by 5.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 477,452 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 24,857 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc.’s holdings in Equity Residential were worth $34,262,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Equity Residential in the 4th quarter worth $2,493,426,000. APG Asset Management US Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. now owns 11,664,576 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $837,050,000 after acquiring an additional 57,660 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 1.8% in the 4th 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 period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 2.0% in the 4th 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 period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 12.0% in the 4th 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.68% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EQR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Equity Residential from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 8th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $74.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $75.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $79.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut 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 report on Wednesday, April 30th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.12.

Equity Residential Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE EQR opened at $70.82 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $26.91 billion, a PE ratio of 26.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.99 and a beta of 0.89. Equity Residential has a 12 month low of $59.41 and a 12 month high of $78.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $68.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $70.93.

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

Equity Residential Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a dividend of $0.6925 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. This is an increase from Equity Residential’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. This represents a $2.77 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.91%. Equity Residential’s payout ratio is 105.73%.

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.