Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eight have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $79.25.

EQR has been the topic of a number of research reports. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $82.00 to $78.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Barclays raised their price objective 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. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $82.25 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Equity Residential in a report on Wednesday, May 28th.

Equity Residential Price Performance

Equity Residential stock opened at $68.77 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $26.13 billion, a PE ratio of 25.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.99 and a beta of 0.90. Equity Residential has a 52-week low of $59.41 and a 52-week high of $78.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The company’s 50 day moving average is $68.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $70.29.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.02. The company 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.93 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Equity Residential will post 3.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equity Residential Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 24th will be given a dividend of $0.6925 per share. This represents a $2.77 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.03%. Equity Residential’s payout ratio is currently 105.73%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,000,934 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,008,547,000 after acquiring an additional 199,943 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Equity Residential in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,493,426,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 5.6% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,711,588 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,482,537,000 after acquiring an additional 1,101,027 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. boosted its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings 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 valued at $681,594,000 after acquiring an additional 165,683 shares in the last quarter. 92.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.