Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Shares Bought by V Square Quantitative Management LLC

V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its holdings in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) by 10.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,867 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 351 shares during the period. V Square Quantitative Management LLC’s holdings in Equity Residential were worth $268,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in shares of Equity Residential by 36.6% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 569,829 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $35,962,000 after acquiring an additional 152,736 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Equity Residential by 14.5% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 146,587 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $8,965,000 after acquiring an additional 18,556 shares in the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of Equity Residential by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 165,650 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $10,131,000 after acquiring an additional 20,010 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Equity Residential by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 551,960 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $33,482,000 after acquiring an additional 27,171 shares in the last quarter. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Equity Residential by 200.9% in the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 77,019 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,861,000 after acquiring an additional 51,423 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.68% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on EQR shares. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Equity Residential from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $68.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Finally, Wedbush upped their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $70.91.

Equity Residential Stock Performance

Shares of EQR stock traded up $0.13 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $71.28. The stock had a trading volume of 576,899 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,968,227. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.21 and a quick ratio of 0.23. Equity Residential has a twelve month low of $52.57 and a twelve month high of $72.32. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $68.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $64.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.05 billion, a PE ratio of 29.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 0.87.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $735.26 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.94 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Equity Residential will post 3.88 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 paid a dividend of $0.675 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 1st. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.79%. Equity Residential’s payout ratio is 112.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equity Residential

In other Equity Residential news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 6,357 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.08, for a total transaction of $439,141.56. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 14,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,006,910.08. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Equity Residential 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.