Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Downgraded by Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report published on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has $77.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their prior target price of $69.00.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on EQR. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Equity Residential from an outperform rating to an in-line rating and set a $70.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, May 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Monday, June 17th. Wedbush lifted their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $67.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $72.16.

Equity Residential Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:EQR opened at $74.04 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $69.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $65.75. Equity Residential has a 12 month low of $52.57 and a 12 month high of $74.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.21 and a quick ratio of 0.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.72, a P/E/G ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 0.87.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last announced its quarterly 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). Equity Residential had a return on equity of 8.53% and a net margin of 32.83%. The company had revenue of $734.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $735.26 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.94 earnings per share. Equity Residential’s revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Equity Residential will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equity Residential Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 6,357 shares of the business’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 completion of 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 document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Equity Residential

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Equity Residential in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,143,388,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Equity Residential by 1.9% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,267,675 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,279,095,000 after purchasing an additional 381,236 shares during the period. APG Asset Management US Inc. grew its holdings in Equity Residential by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. now owns 11,598,251 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $709,349,000 after purchasing an additional 71,716 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Equity Residential by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 9,325,268 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $570,333,000 after purchasing an additional 516,941 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Equity Residential by 482.3% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,153,749 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $496,040,000 after purchasing an additional 5,925,177 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.68% of the company’s stock.

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.