Equity Residential (EQR) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.68 on July 12th

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, June 20th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.675 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, July 12th. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.89%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 1st.

Equity Residential has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.2% annually over the last three years. Equity Residential has a dividend payout ratio of 162.7% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Equity Residential to earn $4.00 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 67.5%.

Equity Residential Price Performance

EQR opened at $69.36 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $26.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.78, a PEG ratio of 3.92 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $66.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $62.84. Equity Residential has a twelve month low of $52.57 and a twelve month high of $69.65.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $730.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $728.09 million. Equity Residential had a net margin of 31.70% and a return on equity of 8.18%. Equity Residential’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.87 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Equity Residential will post 3.88 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Equity Residential

In other news, EVP Alexander Brackenridge sold 4,027 shares of Equity Residential stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.01, for a total value of $261,795.27. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 69,901 shares in the company, valued at $4,544,264.01. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related 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 value of $439,141.56. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 14,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,006,910.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Alexander Brackenridge sold 4,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.01, for a total transaction of $261,795.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 69,901 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,544,264.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 13,625 shares of company stock worth $913,158 over the last three months. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on EQR. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Equity Residential from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Equity Residential from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $80.00 in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. Raymond James upgraded shares of Equity Residential from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, June 17th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $69.09.

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.