Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Receives $72.84 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seventeen analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $72.91.

EQR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Equity Residential in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $81.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Equity Residential from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 14th. UBS Group raised their target price on Equity Residential from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Equity Residential from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on Equity Residential from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Equity Residential news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 6,357 shares of Equity Residential stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.08, for a total transaction of $439,141.56. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 14,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,006,910.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Equity Residential in the 2nd quarter valued at about $796,000. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. increased its position in Equity Residential by 12.3% in the 2nd quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 146,775 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,177,000 after buying an additional 16,063 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in Equity Residential by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 46,353 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,214,000 after buying an additional 1,344 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp increased its position in Equity Residential by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 12,768 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $885,000 after buying an additional 289 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Chase Investment Counsel Corp bought a new stake in Equity Residential in the 2nd quarter valued at about $341,000. 92.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Equity Residential Price Performance

Shares of NYSE EQR opened at $75.10 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $28.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.14 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. Equity Residential has a 1-year low of $52.57 and a 1-year high of $76.75. The business’s 50 day moving average is $71.02 and its 200-day moving average is $66.65.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by ($0.49). The firm had revenue of $734.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $735.26 million. Equity Residential had a return on equity of 8.53% and a net margin of 32.83%. Equity Residential’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.94 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Equity Residential will post 3.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Equity Residential Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 1st were issued a dividend of $0.675 per share. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 1st. Equity Residential’s payout ratio is presently 112.03%.

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.