Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) PT Lowered to $67.00

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) had its target price dropped by investment analysts at Truist Financial from $71.00 to $67.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock. Truist Financial’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 6.42% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on EQR. Raymond James raised shares of Equity Residential from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $58.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, February 26th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $69.00 to $67.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Equity Residential from $62.00 to $61.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Equity Residential currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $65.32.

Equity Residential Stock Performance

Shares of EQR stock opened at $62.96 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $23.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.62, a PEG ratio of 3.74 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. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $59.54. Equity Residential has a 52 week low of $52.57 and a 52 week high of $69.45.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.00 by ($0.18). The company had revenue of $727.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $725.07 million. Equity Residential had a return on equity of 7.43% and a net margin of 29.07%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.94 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Equity Residential will post 3.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Michael L. Manelis sold 1,639 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.43, for a total transaction of $97,405.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 31,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,479.79. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Equity Residential news, COO Michael L. Manelis sold 1,639 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.43, for a total value of $97,405.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 31,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,479.79. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Robert Garechana sold 876 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.80, for a total transaction of $50,632.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 20,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,209,927.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,280 shares of company stock worth $192,335 in the last three months. 1.69% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Equity Residential

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EQR. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Equity Residential in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,143,388,000. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Equity Residential by 68.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,416,565 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $259,297,000 after buying an additional 1,795,772 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Equity Residential by 5.4% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,983,779 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,515,182,000 after buying an additional 1,269,082 shares during the period. Long Pond Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Equity Residential during the fourth quarter worth $63,361,000. Finally, Davis Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Equity Residential during the fourth quarter worth $61,160,000. 92.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.