Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.02 EPS

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The real estate investment trust reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.02, RTT News reports. Equity Residential had a return on equity of 8.18% and a net margin of 31.70%. The firm had revenue of $730.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $728.09 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.87 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis.

Equity Residential Stock Performance

Shares of Equity Residential stock traded up $0.49 during trading on Friday, hitting $65.37. 278,740 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,079,583. Equity Residential has a 1 year low of $52.57 and a 1 year high of $69.45. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $59.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.93, a PEG ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.23 and a quick ratio of 0.30.

Equity Residential Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 25th were paid a $0.675 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 22nd. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.13%. This is a boost from Equity Residential’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. Equity Residential’s payout ratio is currently 112.03%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on EQR. Morgan Stanley increased 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. Truist Financial cut their price target on shares of Equity Residential from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Raymond James upgraded shares of Equity Residential from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Equity Residential from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.04.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Ian Kaufman sold 716 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.80, for a total transaction of $41,384.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,384,252.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Equity Residential news, CAO Ian Kaufman sold 716 shares of the firm’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 $41,384.80. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,384,252.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Michael L. Manelis sold 1,639 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.43, for a total transaction of $97,405.77. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 31,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,479.79. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 3,280 shares of company stock valued at $192,335. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.