Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Given New $75.00 Price Target at Wedbush

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) had its target price increased by Wedbush from $68.00 to $75.00 in a research note published on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Equity Residential from $67.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Equity Residential from an outperform rating to an in-line rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, May 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Equity Residential from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, June 17th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Equity Residential from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and raised their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $70.00 in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $70.84.

Equity Residential Price Performance

Equity Residential stock traded up $2.25 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $71.42. 2,543,804 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,988,048. The company has a market cap of $27.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. Equity Residential has a twelve month low of $52.57 and a twelve month high of $72.32. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $67.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $64.31.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by ($0.49). Equity Residential had a return on equity of 8.53% and a net margin of 32.83%. The firm had revenue of $734.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $735.26 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.94 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Equity Residential will post 3.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equity Residential Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 1st were given a dividend of $0.675 per share. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 1st. Equity Residential’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 112.03%.

Insider Transactions at Equity Residential

In other news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 6,357 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.08, for a total transaction of $439,141.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 14,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,006,910.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Equity Residential

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Equity Residential during the 4th quarter worth $2,143,388,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Equity Residential by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,267,675 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,279,095,000 after acquiring an additional 381,236 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. boosted its holdings in Equity Residential by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. now owns 11,598,251 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $709,349,000 after acquiring an additional 71,716 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Equity Residential by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 9,325,268 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $570,333,000 after acquiring an additional 516,941 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Equity Residential by 482.3% during the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,153,749 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $496,040,000 after acquiring an additional 5,925,177 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.68% of the company’s stock.

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.