Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Hits New 1-Year High Following Analyst Upgrade

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Monday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on the stock from $68.00 to $80.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Equity Residential traded as high as $78.78 and last traded at $78.17, with a volume of 42291 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $78.08.

EQR has been the topic of a number of other reports. UBS Group increased their price objective 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. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Equity Residential from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Equity Residential from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Equity Residential from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Equity Residential in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $83.00 price target for the company. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $75.32.

Insider Activity at Equity Residential

In other news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 6,357 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 24th. The stock was 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 directly owns 14,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,006,910.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Equity Residential

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Equity Residential during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Equity Residential during the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV boosted its position in Equity Residential by 41.9% during the 2nd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 525 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the period. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Equity Residential by 146.6% in the 2nd quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 550 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 327 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in Equity Residential in the 1st quarter valued at $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.68% of the company’s stock.

Equity Residential Stock Down 0.1 %

The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $71.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $67.15. The company has a market capitalization of $29.62 billion, a PE ratio of 32.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.27 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.21 and a quick ratio of 0.21.

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

Equity Residential Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 12th. Investors of record on Monday, July 1st were issued a dividend of $0.675 per share. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 1st. Equity Residential’s payout ratio is 112.03%.

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.