5,041 Shares in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Acquired by Mufg Securities Americas Inc.

Mufg Securities Americas Inc. purchased a new stake in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 5,041 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $362,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Equity Residential during the fourth quarter worth about $2,493,426,000. APG Asset Management US Inc. boosted its stake in Equity Residential by 0.5% during the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 57,660 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Equity Residential by 1.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 165,683 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Equity Residential by 2.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 152,248 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,522,442 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $468,050,000 after purchasing an additional 696,343 shares during the last quarter. 92.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on EQR. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Equity Residential from $74.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Equity Residential from $82.25 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $79.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Equity Residential from $79.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Equity Residential from $75.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $79.69.

Equity Residential Stock Performance

Shares of EQR stock opened at $71.77 on Friday. 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 has a market cap of $27.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.39, a P/E/G ratio of 3.99 and a beta of 0.89. Equity Residential has a 52 week low of $59.41 and a 52 week high of $78.84. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $68.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $70.86.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last posted 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. Equity Residential had a net margin of 34.76% and a return on equity of 9.27%. The company had revenue of $760.81 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $769.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.93 EPS. Equity Residential’s revenue was up 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Equity Residential will post 3.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Equity Residential Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a $0.6925 dividend. This is an increase from Equity Residential’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.77 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.86%. Equity Residential’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 105.73%.

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.