Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) EVP Alexander Brackenridge Sells 4,027 Shares

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) EVP Alexander Brackenridge sold 4,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 approximately $4,544,264.01. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Equity Residential Stock Performance

Shares of Equity Residential stock opened at $64.40 on Wednesday. Equity Residential has a one year low of $52.57 and a one year high of $69.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.72, a PEG ratio of 3.78 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $62.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $59.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.23 and a quick ratio of 0.30.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $730.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $728.09 million. Equity Residential had a return on equity of 8.18% and a net margin of 31.70%. The firm’s revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.87 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Equity Residential will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equity Residential Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 25th were paid a dividend of $0.675 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 22nd. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.19%. This is an increase from Equity Residential’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. Equity Residential’s payout ratio is 112.03%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Equity Residential

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Consolidated Portfolio Review Corp boosted its stake in Equity Residential by 33.1% during the 1st quarter. Consolidated Portfolio Review Corp now owns 5,056 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $319,000 after purchasing an additional 1,257 shares during the last quarter. Norden Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Equity Residential in the 1st quarter worth approximately $414,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 152,212 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $9,606,000 after buying an additional 5,625 shares during the last quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 43,704 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,758,000 after buying an additional 566 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 69,333.3% in the 1st quarter. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 4,166 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $266,000 after buying an additional 4,160 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised Equity Residential from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $70.00 in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Equity Residential from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $68.00 target price on shares of Equity Residential in a research report on Monday. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Equity Residential from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Raymond James raised Equity Residential from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Equity Residential has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $67.04.

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.