Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.77, Bloomberg Earnings reports. Equity Residential had a net margin of 33.99% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The company had revenue of $612.48 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $609.37 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.76 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equity Residential updated its Q3 guidance to $0.77-0.81 EPS and its FY17 guidance to $3.08-3.14 EPS.
Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) traded up 0.03% during midday trading on Friday, reaching $67.32. 1,057,330 shares of the company were exchanged. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $66.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $64.31. Equity Residential has a 52 week low of $58.28 and a 52 week high of $68.83. The company has a market capitalization of $24.73 billion, a PE ratio of 30.09 and a beta of 0.34.
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 14th. Investors of record on Monday, June 26th were given a dividend of $0.5038 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 22nd. This represents a $2.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.99%. Equity Residential’s payout ratio is 90.58%.
Several brokerages have recently weighed in on EQR. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Equity Residential from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 19th. UBS AG cut shares of Equity Residential from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $68.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, July 6th. BidaskClub upgraded shares of Equity Residential from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $66.00 price target on shares of Equity Residential in a research note on Thursday, May 25th. Finally, Jefferies Group LLC restated a “hold” rating and issued a $67.00 target price on shares of Equity Residential in a report on Monday, July 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Equity Residential has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $68.29.
In other news, insider David S. Santee sold 10,967 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.93, for a total transaction of $744,988.31. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Bruce C. Strohm sold 1,686 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.23, for a total transaction of $113,349.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 55,838 shares of company stock worth $3,724,023. 3.79% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in Equity Residential by 2,486.4% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 33,800,889 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,103,090,000 after buying an additional 32,494,035 shares during the period. Macquarie Group Ltd. increased its stake in Equity Residential by 1,425.3% in the fourth quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 12,050,701 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $775,583,000 after buying an additional 11,260,624 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Equity Residential by 266.0% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,981,160 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $123,268,000 after buying an additional 1,439,915 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Equity Residential by 2.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,348,375 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,257,116,000 after buying an additional 1,140,042 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Equity Residential by 64.5% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,443,018 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $152,006,000 after buying an additional 957,684 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.09% of the company’s stock.
Equity Residential Company Profile
Equity Residential is a real estate investment trust. The Company’s primary business is the acquisition, development and management of multifamily residential properties. Its segments include Boston, New York, Washington DC, Southern California, San Francisco, Seattle and Other Markets. Southern California includes Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange County.
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