Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Purchases 4,570 Shares of Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its position in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) by 2.1% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 217,304 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 4,570 shares during the quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank’s holdings in Equity Residential were worth $15,068,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 36.6% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 569,829 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $35,962,000 after purchasing an additional 152,736 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 146,587 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $8,965,000 after purchasing an additional 18,556 shares in the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 165,650 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $10,131,000 after purchasing an additional 20,010 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 5.2% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 27,171 shares in the last quarter. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 200.9% in the 1st quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 77,019 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,861,000 after purchasing an additional 51,423 shares in the last quarter. 92.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EQR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Equity Residential from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Equity Residential from $70.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company cut Equity Residential from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Equity Residential from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on Equity Residential from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.16.

Insider Transactions at Equity Residential

In other news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 6,357 shares of Equity Residential stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.08, for a total value of $439,141.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 14,576 shares in the company, valued at $1,006,910.08. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Equity Residential Stock Performance

EQR traded down $0.15 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $74.04. The stock had a trading volume of 1,263,908 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,928,248. Equity Residential has a 1 year low of $52.57 and a 1 year high of $74.46. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $69.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.75. The stock has a market cap of $28.10 billion, a PE ratio of 30.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last posted its earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.96 by ($0.49). The business had revenue of $734.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 in the previous year, the business earned $0.94 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Equity Residential will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Equity Residential Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 1st were paid a $0.675 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 1st. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.65%. Equity Residential’s payout ratio is 112.03%.

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.