Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Issues Q2 Earnings Guidance

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) updated its second quarter earnings guidance on Tuesday. The company provided EPS guidance of $0.92-0.96 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $0.96.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on EQR shares. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $69.00 to $67.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Equity Residential from $58.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Raymond James upgraded Equity Residential from an underperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Truist Financial lowered their target price on Equity Residential from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a buy rating and issued a $70.00 price target on shares of Equity Residential in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $65.75.

Equity Residential Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:EQR traded up $0.55 on Tuesday, hitting $63.09. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,479,300 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,073,714. The company has a market capitalization of $23.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.30. Equity Residential has a 12 month low of $52.57 and a 12 month high of $69.45. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $61.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $59.71.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $728.09 million. Equity Residential had a net margin of 29.07% and a return on equity of 7.43%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.87 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Equity Residential will post 3.86 EPS for the current year.

Equity Residential Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 25th were paid a $0.675 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 22nd. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.28%. This is a boost from Equity Residential’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. Equity Residential’s payout ratio is currently 122.73%.

Insider Activity at Equity Residential

In other Equity Residential news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 876 shares of Equity Residential stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.80, for a total value of $50,632.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 20,933 shares in the company, valued at $1,209,927.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 876 shares of Equity Residential stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.80, for a total value of $50,632.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 20,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,209,927.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Ian Kaufman sold 716 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.80, for a total value of $41,384.80. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,949 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,384,252.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,280 shares of company stock valued at $192,335 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.00% 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.